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REPORT 


SELECT  COMM  LITE E 


Appointed  by  the  Assenjbly  of  1875 


TO 


Investigate  the  Causes  oe  the  Inchease  of  Crime 


CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


THOS.  COOPER  CAMPBELL, 
LEO  C.  DESSAR, 

JOHN  T.  McGowan, 

JACOB  HESS, 

JAMES  W.  HUSTED, 


-  Committee. 


L46269 

NEW  YORK; 

MARTIN  R.  BROWN,  PRINTER  AND  STATIONER, 
Nos.  ;201,  208,  i’  205  William  Stuket. 


1870. 


xSKW  Yokk,  February  11,  1876. 
lion.  James  W.  Husted, 

Speaker  of  the  Assemhiy  of  the  State  of  New  York  : 

The  iindersign-ed,  members  of  the  Select  Committee 
appointed  by  the  Assembly  of  1875,  to  investigate  the  causes 
of  the  increase  of  crime  in  the  city  of  New  York,  respect¬ 
fully  report  as  follows : 

The  two  resolutions  under  which  their  authority  was 
conferred  were  as  follows  : 

Whereas,  The  steady  and  rapid  increase  of  crime  in  the 
City  and  County  of  New  York,  has  created  great  alarm  in 
the  minds  of  all  good  citizens  of  that  city  ;  and 

Whereas,  The  proper  authorities  charged  with  its  ap¬ 
prehension,  prosecution  and  punishment  ai)pear  to  be  in¬ 
adequate  to  its  speedy  suppression,  while  the  interest  of 
good  government  require  that  all  offences  against  the  laws 
should  be  dealt  with  in  the  most  summary  and  decisive 
manner :  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  be  and  he 
is  hereby  authorized  to  appoint  a  select  committee  of  five, 
which  committee  shall  have  power  to  send  for  persons 
and  papers,  tpid  compel  the  attendance  of  witnesses,  and 
inquire  into  the  causes,  as  far  as  possible,  of  the  great  in¬ 
crease  of  crime  in  said  city  and  county,  by  making  such 
examination  and  investigation  of  all  persons  and  officers, 


L46269 


LAW  LIBRARY 


o 


books  and  papers,  in  said  city  and  connty,  that  may  in  any 
way  be  connected  with  the  prosecution,  suppression  and 
pnnishment  of  crime  ;  that  the  said  committee  may  deem 
essential  and  necessaiy,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertainin<<’  if 
such  increase  of  crime  can  be  charged  to  the  negligence 
or  connivance  of  any  of  the  public  officers  whose  duty  it  is 
either  to  arrest,  detect,  prosecute  or  punish  crime  in  said 
city  and  connt}^,  together  with  such  other  matters  as  said 
committee  shall  deem  best  for  the  public  good  Said 
committee  is  hereby  authoi’ized  to  sit  during  the  recess  of 
the  Legislature,  and  report  the  result  of  their  investiga¬ 
tion,  together  with  such  recommendations  in  relation 
thereto  as  they  may  deem  necessary  and  important  for  the 
preservation  of  law  and  order  in  said  city  and  county,  to 
the  next  Legislature ;  and  said  committee  is  authorized  to 
employ  a  stenographer,  who  shall  be  clerk  of  the  commit¬ 
tee,  and  a  messenger. 

^Yl^ereas^  It  is  against  the  settled  policy  of  this  State  to 
allow  imprisonment  for  debt ;  and 

Whereas^  It  is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety  that  many 
persons  are  confined  in  the  jail  of  the  County  of  Kew 
York  upon  civil  process  only  ;  therefore. 

Resolved^  That  the  select  committee  appointed  to  “  in¬ 
quire  into  the  causes  as  far  as  possible  of  the  great  in¬ 
crease  of  crime,”  in  the  City  of  New  York,  are  hereby 
empowei-ed  and  directed  to  investigate  the  management 
of  the  Ludlow  street  jail  in  said  city,  and  to  report,  in 
connection  with  the  other  subjects  upon  which  they  are 
empowered  to  act,  a  statement  of  the  nature  of  the  pro¬ 
cess  upon  which  they  are  so  confined  ;  and’,  in  all  cases, 
when  such  detention  is  upon  civil  process  only,  with  a  full 
statement  of  the  nature  of  the  charges  or  allegations  upon 


which  such  process  was  issued,  and  of  the  mode  in  which 
such  allegations  were  supported  by  proof  before  the  magis¬ 
trate  or  officer  issuing  such  process ;  and,  further,  to  re¬ 
port  wli,at  legislation  is  necessary  to  insure  reasonable  ex¬ 
emption  from  the  arbitrary  and  unjust  imprisonment  and 
detention  of  all  citizens  of  this  State,  and  that  said  com¬ 
mittee  have  power  to  employ  counsel,  if  necessary. 

The  earlier  of  the  resolutions,  covering  by  far  the  more 
important  topics,  has  naturally  secured  the  greatest  share 
of  the  Committees’  attention,  although  they  have  also 
made  an  extended  examination  into  the  affairs  of  Ludlow 
street  jail,  as  M’ill  appear  later  on  in  this  report. 

The  Committee  met  for  oganization  in  private  on  the 
4th  of  June,  1875,  and  organized  by  the  election  of 
Thomas  Cooper  Campbell  as  Chairman,  and  at  the  same 
session  they  appointed  John  D.  Townsend,  Esq.,  Counsel 
to  the  Committee.  Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Mayor, 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Works  and  the  President  of 
the  Board  of  Aldermen,  the  old  Chamber  of  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  in  the  City  Hall,  was  put  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Committee,  and,  commencing  on  June  10,  1875,  all 
of  the  sessions  were  held  there,  except  those  which  were 
for  the  sake  of  convenience  held  in  the  various  institu¬ 
tions  visited.  By  this  courtesy  on  the  part  of  the  municipal 
authorities,  all  expense  to  the  State  in  the  way  of  hiring 
rooms,  was  avoided.  The  sessions  were  held  in  public, 
and  were  largely  attended  by  citizens,  and  extensively  re¬ 
ported  in  the  columns  of  the  press. 

The  duties  imposed  on  the  Committee  naturally  brought 
under  their  investigation  the  Board  of  Municipal  Police  ; 
the  Criminal  Courts,  from  the  Police  Justices  to  the  Court 
of  Oyer  and  Terminer ;  the  Coroners ;  the  District  At- 


4 


torney,  and  all  tlie  penal  institutions,  public  and  private. 
In  addition  to  this,  owing-  to  the  overwhelming  evidence 
that  intemperance  was  the  chief  cause  of  crime,  the  Com¬ 
mittee  deemed  it  proper  to  inquire  fully  into  the  affairs 
of  the  Board  of  Excise.  Into  all  these  departments  of 
their  labor,  tlie  Committee  believe  that  they  have  made 
an  exhaustive  inquiry.  They  published  in  tl  e  public 
journals  a  general  invitation  to  all  persons  who  had  anj’- 
information  of  value  to  communicate,  inviting  them  to 
present  their  statements  to  the  Committee  or  their  counsel. 
They  examined  into  every  important  allegation  made  to 
them,  and  if  they  deemed  it  one  of  sufficient  importance, 
they  produced  it  in  sworn  testimony.  Finally  they  called 
npon  all  the  heads  of  departments,  and  upon  all  persons 
in  any  waj-  implicated  by  evidence,  to  appear  befoi-e  them. 
Thus  they  examined  the  four  Commissioners  of  Police, 
the  Superintendent,  two  out  of  the  four  Inspectors,  and  a 
number  of  Captains  ;  nearly  all  the  Police  Justices,  and 
many  of  the  Clerks  of  Criminal  Courts ;  two  of  the  Coroners 
and  one  ex-Coi’oner ;  the  District  Attoi-ney  (in  part  only, 
as  that  official  declined  to  appear  before  the  Committee 
when  subsequently  invited,  for  i-easons  stated  in  the  cor¬ 
respondence  on  page  2972,  et  seq.) ;  the  three  Commis¬ 
sioners  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  and  many  of  their 
principal  subordinates,  and  the  heads  of  the  various  private 
corporations  to  whose  custody  criminals  are*  committed. 
The  Committee  visited  in  person  all  the  penal  institutions 
under  the  custody  of  the  Commissioners  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  i.  e.,  the  City  Prison,  the  Penitentiary,  the  Work 
House,  the  School  Ship  “  Mercury,”  and  Hart’s  Island,  and 
also  the  House  of  Refuge,  the  Catholic  Protectory,  and 
the  Juvenile  Asylum.  In  each  of  these  institutions,  after  a 
thorough  personal  inspection,  the  Committee  swore,  on 


5 


the  spot,  the  principal  witnesses  attainable.  In  some  cases, 
inmates  of  the  institutions  were  examined  touching  their 
treatment  and  mode  of  life. 

The  Committee  have  met  with  a  general  willingness  to 
extend  every  courtes}"  and  facility  to  them,  in  pursuing  the 
arduous  duties  imposed  on  them,  and  desire  to  express  in 
this  general  way  their  grateful  sense  of  the  many  cour¬ 
tesies  they  have  received. 

The  sessions  of  the  Committee  were  held  generally 
twice  and  sometimes  three  times  a  week,  from  the  lOth  of 
June  to  the  29th  of  December,  with  only  the  intermission 
of  the  month  of  August  —  most  of  the  sessions  continuing 
tive  or  six  hours  of  the  day.  In  this  time,  nearly  3,000 
printed  pages  of  testimony  were  taken,  which  is  submitted 
with  the  report.  The  Committee  believe  that  but  little  of 
this  great  mass  of  matter  will  be  found  valueless,  and 
most  of  it  throws  floods  of  light  on  the  condition  and 
management  of  the  criminal  classes  in  New  York. 

With  these  prefatory  remarks,  we  now  proceed  to  take 
up,  in  detail,  the  various  topics  into  which  our  investiga¬ 
tion  necessarily  divided  itself. 


POLICE. 

The  police  force  of  the  city  of  New  York  is  governed 
by  a  Board  of  four  Commissioners  of  Police,  appointed 
for  terms  of  six  years,  ex[)iring  at  dift'erent  periods,  by  the 
Mayor,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Board  of  Al¬ 
dermen.  The  force  under  the  government  of  the  Com¬ 
missioners  consists  at  present  of  1  supei-intendent,  4 
inspectors,  34  captains,  126  sergeants,  142  roundsmen, 
2,117  patrolmen,  and  73  doormen.  The  city  is  divided 


6 


into  30  territorial  ])recincts,  28  of  which  are  at  present 
commanded  by  captains  and  two  by  sergeants.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  these  are  the  Sanitary  Company,  commanded  by  a 
captain  ;  the  Ilai-bor  Police,  employing  a  steamboat  and 
row-boats,  commanded  by  a  captain;  the  Broadway  squad, 
designed  to  help  people  across  Broadway  in  the  daytime, 
commanded  by  a  captain  ;  while  one  captain  has  charge  of 
the  drilling  of  the  patrolmen  ;  amhlier  is  superintendent 
of  the  street  cleaning  department,  and  another  one  is  under 
him  in  command  of  certain  scows  attached  to  that  depart¬ 
ment.  Besides  these,  there  are  the  mounted  squad,  con¬ 
sisting  of  14  men  ;  the  steamship  squad,  of  22  men  ;  the 
headquarters  detectives,  12  in  number;  the  House  of  De¬ 
tention,  commanded  by  a  sergeant  and  employing  4 
policemen,  and  five  Court  squads,  each  commanded  by  a 
sergeant  and  employing  in  the  aggregate  47  policemen. 

The  precincts  are  divided  into  four  inspection  districts, 
each  of  J  which  is  commanded  by  an  inspectoi-,  and  the 
superintendent  has  power  over  the  whole  force.  All 
orders  from  tlie  Board  should,  and  at  present  do,  issue  to 
him  alone,  and  the  police  force  should,  and  at  present  do, 
receive  their  orders  from  him  alone.  Great  abuses  liave 
sprung  up  in  the  past  from  individual  commissioners 
issuing  orders  to  the  superintendent,  and  even  to  the  super¬ 
intendent’s  subordinates  without  consulting  liim. 

HISTOEY  OF  POLICE  FOKCE. 

Up  to^the  year  1857,  with  various  vicissitudes,  the  city 
of  New  York  had  a  Municipal  police  force,  wliich  on  the 
whole  was  not  adequate  for  the  duties  it  was  called  upon 
to  perform,  and  did  not  give  general  satisfaction.  In 
1857,  the  Legislature  established  the  Metropolitan  Police 
District,  consisting  of  the  city  of  New  York,  the  city  of 


7 


Brooklyn  and  portions  of  the  adjoining  territory,  and  for 
thirteen  years  the  city  ])olice  was  merged  in  that  body. 
In  1870,  the  charter  of  that  year  abolislied  the  Metropoli¬ 
tan  Police  District  and  again  substituted  the  Municipal 
Police  Force,  which  has  continued  under  substantially  the 
same  law  to  the  present  day.  It  is  the  opinion  of  many, 
if  not  most,  of  the  witnesses,  competent  to  express  an  opin¬ 
ion,  whom  the  committee  has  examined,  that  the  ^letro- 
politan  Police  Force  was  the  best  force  we  ever  had  and 
that  its  system  was  the  best  system  that  can  be  devised. 
From  this  opinion  the  committee  are  not  prepared  to  dis¬ 
sent,  nor  are  they  prepared,  at  present,  to  recommend  to 
the  Legislature  the  re-establishment  of  the  Metropolitan 
Police  District,  particularly  in  view  of  tlie  grave  doubts 
as  to  the  constitutionality  of  such  an  action  raised  by  the 
decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  Rensselaer  Police 
case.  They  especially  do  not  feel  disposed  to  urge  this 
action  upon  the  Legislature,  as  the}'  believe  that  if  the 
Legislature  will  adopt  the  recommendations  embodied  in 
this  report,  the  Municipal  Police  will  be  put  on  trial  for 
the  hist  time  in  the  city  of  New  York  under  good  laws 
and  good  management. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FORCE. 

At  the  outset,  the  committee  feel  compelled  to  bear  wit¬ 
ness  to  the  extreme  demoralization  that  has  crept  all  over 
the  police  force  of, the  city  of  New  York.  The  evidence 
that  has  been  taken  before  the  committee  is  but  a  skim¬ 
ming  of  the  surface,  after  all,  and  3'et  it  has  awakened  in¬ 
tense  interest  in  the  conimunit}'  and  has  brought  to  light 
facts  of  which  only  those  citizens  were  aware  who  had 
themselves  seen  much  of  the  working  of  the  police  force. 

It  is  undoubtedly,  to  a  great  extent,  a  corrupt  force,  and  I 


8 


yonr  committee  believe  that  it  has  been  corrupted  from 
the  top  downward.  It  is  impossible  to  give  even  the 
smallest  sketch  here  of  the  immense  mass  of  testimony 
which  has  flowed  in  upon  the  committee  concerning  the 
degradation  of  the  police  force,  bnt  at  least  some  extracts 
of  a  few  portions  of  it  can  be  attempted. 

CONDUCT  OF  POLICE  CAPTAINS. 

Within  the  limits  of  their  precincts,  the  captains  are 
over  the  criminal  classes  absolute  raonarchs,  and  can  be 
very  despotic  and  very  powerful  over  the  poorer  class, 
even  when  not  criminals.  Armed  with  these  immense 
powers,  what  has  been  the  conduct  of  the  captains  of  the 
police  force  ?  Some  idea  of  it  can  be  obtained  from  the 
following  summary  :  It  is  in  testimony  that  one  captain 
received  regularly  every  week  from  each  panel-house  in 
his  district  ^75,  and,  in  addition,  one-half  of  the  “  squeals,” 
which  phrase,  being  translated  from  police  and  thieves’ 
jparlance  into  English,  means  the  amount  of  money  stolen 
in  a  panel-house  from  any  individual  who  has  complained 
at  the  station-house,  and  who  has  been  turned  away  with¬ 
out  his  complaint  being  prosecuted.  This  captain,  who 
‘commanded  the  Twenty-ninth  Precinct,  bounded  by 
Fourteenth  street.  Forty-second  street.  Fourth  and 
and  Seventh  avenues,  testifled  that  he  thought  there 
were  gambling-houses  in  his  precinct,  but  he  was  not 
sure  of  it,  and  he  never  captured  any,  although  the 
existence  of  gambling-houses  in  that  precinct  was  about 
as  well  known  as  the  existence  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel. 
Another  captain  allowed  seven  panel-houses  at  a  time  to 
run  in  his  precinct,  and  his  ward  detective  received  sums 
of  money  fi'om  these  panel-houses,  which  doubtless  he 
divided  witli  or  handed  over  to  the  captain.  When  com- 


9 


plaints  were  inade  against  these  panel-houses,  patrolmen 
were  sent  out  from  the  station-house  bj  the  captain  to  the 
opposite  end  of  the  precinct  to  search  for  the  thieves. 
The  same  captain  took  forcibly  from  a  woman  in  her 
bed  some  money  and  some  diamonds,  and  when  she  sued 
him  for  tliem,  he  set  up  in  his  answer  that  she  gave  them 
to  him  of  her  own  free  will.  Another  captain  tried  to 
obtain  money  from  a  restaurant  keeper  who  was  in  the 
habit  of  supplying  houses  of  prostitution  with  meals ; 
accepted  money  from  the  keeper  of  a  house  of  prosti¬ 
tution,  and  said  he  would  take  presents,  although  lie 
would  not  insist  upon  them  ;  tried  to  get  money  from  a 
man  who  was  keeping  a  liquor  store  in  his  precinct,  and 
failing  to  do  so,  procured  his  arrest  on  a  trumped-nit 
charge,  it  being  charged  tliat  he  was  in  the  custom  of 
receiving  money  from  all  tlie  liquor  stores.  The  same 
captain,  when  a  citizen  commenced  to  investigate  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  panel-houses,  procured  an  assault  to  be  made  upon 
the  citizen  which  was  nearly  fatal  to  him  ;  harassed  and 
persecuted  him  in  every  way  and  directed  one  of  his  offi¬ 
cers  to  arrest  and  bring  into  his  station-house  two  women 
of  presumably  good  character,  and  certainly  inoffensive 
behavior,  who  were  walking  with  this  man,  peace¬ 
ably  in  the  streets ;  and  when  he  found  that  the  man  him¬ 
self  was  not  brought  in,  berated  and  abused  tlie  women, 
and  finally  discharged  them.  The  same  captain  himself 
was  sliown  a  gambling-house  in  full  o[)eration,  to  suppress 
which  he  took  no  steps  and  which  was  finally  arrested 
by  the  headquarter  police.  From  the  evidence  ad¬ 
duced,  it  would  appear  that  another  captain  took  $100 
monthly  from  the  keeper  of  an  entirely  reputable  place 
of  amusement,  one  indeed  frequented  by  the  highest  class 
of  society  in  the  city,  for  stationing  a  patrolman  for  keep- 


10 


ino-  order  at  the  door,  which  it  was  his  duty  to  do. 
Another,  now  no  longer  on  the  force,  was  seen  entering  a 
panel-house  by  a  newspaper  reporter.  Another  expressed 
to  the  committee  great  doubts  whether  Mike  Murray, 
known  as  “Big  Murray,”  did  or  did  not  keep  a  gambling- 
house  in  his  precinct,  the  fact  being  as  notorions  as  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  Grace  Church.  It  should  be  stated  tliat  the  fact 
that  Mike  Murray  kept  a  gambling-house  was  repeatedly 
announced  in  the  newspapers.  This  same  captain  vigor¬ 
ously  objected  to  the  headquarter  detectives  going  into  his 
precinct  to  perform  the  duties  with  which  they  were 
charged  by  the  law  and  by  their  suijerior  officers,  and 
tlireatened  the  captain  of  the  detectives  that  if  he  caught 
any  of  liis  men  in  his  precinct  again,  he  would  kick  them 
out.  The  same  captain  who  was  ignorant  of  the  existence 
of  Mike  Murray’s  gambling-house,  although  an  exception¬ 
ally  intelligent  man,  did  not  know  that  Sarah  Meyers  kept 
a  house  of  prostitution  in  his  precinct,  while,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  she  kept  half  a  dozen,  and  was  probably  the  most 
notorions  woman  in  New  York.  Another  captain  on  his 
own  showing,  discharged  prisoners  without  any  warrant 
whatever  of  law,  and  was  unable  to  see  any  disorder  or 
any  violation  of  the  Excise  Law  in  the  low  Chatham 
square  concert  rooms,  disorder  and  violation  of  law  which 
your  committee  on  their  very  first  visit  saw  at  a  glance. 
Another  captain  is  detected  by  a  witness  coming  out  of 
his  private  room  in  the  station-house  partially  undressed, 
while  a  woman  is  within.  Another  captain,  happily  no 
longer  an  ornament  to  the  force,  robbed  and  plundered 
the  city  out  of  horse-feed,  bricks,  saddles,  blankets,  and 
any  other  small  piece  of  plunder  that  he  could  lay  hig 
hands  upon. 

And  yet,  under  the  law,  the  Commissioners,  no  matter 


11 


how  desirous  tliey  may  be  of  doing  justice,  are  not  able  to 
laj"  their  hands  upon  all  of  these  men.  Several  of  the 
captains,  of  whose  guilt  the  Commissioners  entertained 
no  donbt,  escaped  dismissal  owing  to  a  failure  of  technical 
evidence.  On  page  2,515  will  be  found  a  story  of  a  cap¬ 
tain’s  rascality,  told  l)y  Police  Justice  Murray,  who,  to  the 
regret  of  the  committee,  was  unwilling  to  give  the  name 
of  the  offending  officer.  On  page  2,493  Commissioner 
Voorhis  gives  a  general  summary  of  the  difficulties  of  deal¬ 
ing  with  the  captains  of  the  police  force,  and  it  is  the 
opinion  of  all  the  competent  witnesses,  of  Superintendent 
Walling,  of  Inspector  Dilks,  and  of  Inspector  McDermott 
that  every  captain  can,  if  he  chooses  to  enforce  the  law 
and  do  his  duty,  break  up  gambling,  panel-houses,  and 
disorderly  houses  of  prostitution  in  the  precinct.  That 
the}'  are  not  bi’oken  uj)  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  utter 
unwillingness  or  incompetency  of  the  police  captains  to 
discharge  their  dut}'.  In  fact,  certain  precincts  in  the  city, 
the  Eighth,  the  Fourteenth,  the  Fifteenth,  the  Twenty- 
ninth,  wdiich  lie  along  the  central  line  of  the  city  where 
the  large  gambling  bouses,  the  opportunities  for  panel- 
houses,  and  the  most  prosperous  houses  of  prostitution 
exist,  have  been  looked  u])on  for  years  past  as  desirable 
spots  from  which  to  plunder,  and  the  testimony  of  two 
captains  who  have  not  been  in  these  precincts,  but  who 
understand  the  general  reputation  that  they  bear  on  the 
force,  will  be  found  on  page  254  and  342,  the  latter  stating 
that  these  precincts  are  supposed  to  have  “  plenty  of 
money  in  them.” 

The  committee  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying 
that  there  are  no  good  captains  upon  the  police  force.  A 
few  still  continue  there,  and  better  officers  than  some 
of  these  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  any  police  force,  but 


12 


the  general  average  is  disgracefully  low  and  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  half  the  captains  on  the  police  force  are  utterly  un¬ 
trustworthy  and  utterly  unfit  to  hold  the  positions  the}’’  do. 

INEFFICIENCY  AND  CORRUPTION  OF  THE  POLICE. 

Among  the  most  potent  causes  of  the  increase  of  crime 
in  the  city  of  New  York  has  been,  without  doubt,  the 
inefficiency  and  the  corruption  of  the  police  force,  which 
is  demonstrated  b}'  the  existence  and  flourishing  of  certain 
classes  of  crime  to  which  we  would  more  particularly  in¬ 
vite  tlie  attention  of  the  Legislature.  The  common  pick¬ 
pocket,  the  forger,  the  counterfeiter,  and  the  burglar  are 
of  course  more  or  less  under  the  dominion  of  the  police, 
and  can  be  more  or  less  restrained  as  the  police  are  more 
or  less  honest  or  efficient ;  but  that  they  will  exist,  no 
matter  how  powerful  and  how  upright  the  police  force  is, 
is  no  matter  of  doubt.  But  certain  other  classes  of  crime 
peculiar  to  great  cities,  and  almost  indeed  peculiar  to  this 
city,  depend  for  the  breath  of  life  upon  the  connivance  or 
the  imbecility  of  the  police  force ;  for  instance,  take  the 
subject  of  panel  houses. 

PANEL-HOUSES. 

Very  elaborate  descriptions  of  these  places  will  be 
found  on  pages  12,  205  and  463,  the  latter  being  the 
experience  of  a  victim.  They  are  simply  places  for 
robbery,  most  ingeniously  prepared  and  carried  on  under 
the  guise  of  prostitution.  It  is  the  opinion  of  every  com¬ 
petent  witness  who  has  been  examined  upon  the  subject, 
including  even  the  great  majority  of  the  captains  them¬ 
selves,  that  the  continued  existence  of  a  panel-house  is  ab¬ 
solutely  impossible  in  any  precinct  withbut  the  direct 


18 


connivance  of  the  police,  and  particularly  of  the  captain; 
and  yet  it  is  be3'ond  all  question  that  a  large  number  of 
panel-houses  have  at  difPerent  times  existed  in  the  city  of 
JVewYork.  See  the  testimony  of  Martinot,  Twohey,  and 
the  woman  Small,  also  the  testimony  of  Arthur  Pember 
(page  193),  a  journalist  by  profession,  and  tolerabl}"  well 
known  as  the  author  of  a  book  entitled  the  “  Amateur 
Vagabond.”  In  1871  Mr.  Pember  made  extensive  investi¬ 
gations  into  the  subject  of  panel-houses,  and  in  disguise 
was  himself  a  witness  to  robberies  committed  there.  He 
saw  the  captain  of  a  precinct  enter  the  doorway  of  a 
panel-house  and  receive  some  money  from  a  man  there, 
and  he  does  not  hesitate  to  state  that  the  police  force  were 
in  league  with  the  panel  thieves. 

At  one  time,  in  the  Eighth  Precinct,  one  out  of  four 
sergeants  received  personallj^  twelve  complaints  of  rol)l:)er- 
ies  in  panel-houses,  seven  of  which  affected  one  house, 
No.  143  Mercer  street,  and  no«arrests  were  made.  The 
fact  that  there  was  a  panel-house  at  that  ])lace  at  that 
time  is  corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Pember,  of 
Corkoran,  a  I'eporter  for  the  Sun  (page  88),  and  Twohe\' 
(page  216),  the  latter  giving  a  very  full  account  of  it  from 
personal  inspection. 

An  ex-detective  expresses  the  opinion  that  since  the 
session  of  this  committee  began,  ])anel-house3  have  ceased 
to  exist,  temporaril}'  at  least,  in  New  York,  and  it  is  not  at 
all  improbable,  from  what  we  can  learn,  that  such  was  the 
fact,  showing  that  nothing  but  the  will  was  lacking  to 
enable  the  police  to  close  those  jdaces. 

TROSTITUTIOX. 

Houses  of  prostitution,  doubtless,  must  exist,  and  will 
continue  to  exist,  whatever  laws  legislatures  may  pass,  or 


u 


whatever  steps  to  enfoi'ce  such  laws  police  authorities  uiaj 
take.  \V e  shall  discuss  this  cpiestion  more  fully  later  ou,  aud 
call  attention  now  to  the  fact  that,  while  we  do  not  doubt 
that  pi-ostitution  necessarily  will  exist,  we  also  do  not  doubt 
hut  that  the  police  authorities  can  prevent  its  open,  in- 
decentand  offensive  manifestations.  Street-walking:,  solicit- 
ing,  indecent  exposure  from  windows  of  houses,  noise, 
drunkenness  and  confusion  can  be  prevented  by  police 
aiithorities,  as  can  also  the  existence  of  houses  of  the  most 
beastly  and  degraded  character.  It  seems,  however,  from 
the  whole  testimony  before  ns,  that  in  but  few,  if  an}',  pre¬ 
cincts  of  the  city,  had  any  such  measures  been  taken  by 
the  police  authorities  as  would  prevent  these  occurrences 
prior  to  the  time  that  the  sessions  of  this  committee  began, 
and  even  after  its  sessions  had  commenced  a  great  many 
things  continued  to  go  on  which  a  well  governed  police 
force  would  never  allow.  The  committee  have  not  deemed 
it  desirable  to  confine  thei-r  source  of  information  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  city  to  evidence  offered  befoie  them, 
but  have  in  person,  under  the  guidance  of  an  experienced 
detective,  visited  at  night  a  great  many  of  the  worst 
quarters  of  the  city,  and  have  found  a  disorder  prevalent 
in  such  quarters  which  was  scandalous  to  a  great  metro¬ 
polis.  The  testimony  of  Martinet  (pages  18  and  19),  and 
Groo  (page  86),  present  the  subject  to  some  extent  from  a 
police  point  of  view,  but  the  committee  has  had  before 
it  a  large  number  of  citizens  of  the  Eighth,  Tenth, 
and  Fifteenth  Wards,  who,  weary  with  appeals  to  the 
polic6  courts  and  to  the  District  Attorney’s  office,  have 
come  and  laid  their  grievances  before  us  as  the  representa¬ 
tives  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State.  The  testimony  of 
Jones  (page  55),  Hannah  (page  65),  Fox  (page  31),  Gilsey 
(page  76),  Maloney  (page  84),  Bifti  (page  2127),  JJubernet 


(page  2146),  GriuidheiT  (page  2150),  Young  (page  2152), 
McGagney  (page  2155),  Neville  (page  2157),  131eha  (page 
2160),  Fitzpatrick  (page  2242),  lYuntz  (page  2263), 
Apman  (page  2266),  Haag  (page  2269),  Ilartiuan  (page 
2271),  and  Fleischinaiin  (page  2275),  shows  the  annoyance 
that  respectable  citizens  have  had  to  put  up  with  from 
these  disreputable  and  noisy  houses  in  their  neighborhood. 
But,  instead  of  suppressing  and  preventing  these  outward 
and  offensive  manifestations  of  prostitution,  there  is  but 
too  much  reason  to  fear  that  the  police  ha\  e  used  the 
prohibition  of  the  law  against  houses  of  prostitution, 
systematically  to  extort  money  from  the  keepers  and  in¬ 
mates  of  these  places. 

This  is  a  subject  upon  which  it  has  been  impossible  to 
get  much  direct  testimony,  the  interest  of  all  the  parties  con¬ 
cerned  rendering  it  desirable  to  them  that  the  facts  should 
not  be  known,  and  their  character  being  such  that  false  tes¬ 
timony  comes  fpiite  as  readily  to  their  lips  as  truth  ;  yet  the 
testimony  of  Martinet  (page  15),  Groo  (page  43),  Maloney 
(page  84),  Benedict  (page  113),  Moultrie  (pagell6),  Mc¬ 
Cord  (page  118),  Ackerman  (page  119)  and  Turner  (page 
172),  taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  captains  have 
frequently  broken  up  houses  quite  as  inoffensive  as  their 
neighbors  who  are  permitted  to  exist,  will,  we  think, 
abundantly  warrant  the  conclusion  to  whicli  we  have  come. 
Many  of  these  houses  are  conducted  for  the  purpose  of 
having  the  most  obscene  exhibitions,  a  fact  which  cannot 
fail  to  be  known  to  the  police,  and  yet  on  account  of  which 
they  are  rarely  interfered  with.  Indeed,  one  captain  tes¬ 
tified  before  the  committee  that  no  such  })laces  existed  in 
his  precinct,  and  on  the  very  niglit  that  he  gave  that  tes¬ 
timony  the  committee  had  no  difficulty  whatever,  through 
a  headquarters’  detective,  in  finding  five  such  houses  in  a 


16 


row  within  one-eighth  of  a  mile  of  that  captain’s  station- 
house.  Others  in  varions  parts  of  the  city  have  been 
known  by  the  committee  to  exist.  It  is  but  justice  to  the 
police  force,  however,  to  state  that  the  failure  to  suppress 
such  places  effectually  is  not  always  chargeable  upon  them 
alone.  A  very  curious  case  will  be  found  in  the  testimony 
of  Captain  Gunner  (page  1310).  When  this  captain  was  in 
command  of  the  Eigliteenth  Precinct,  a  house  of  this  char¬ 
acter  was  running  in  I'wenty-second  street,  kept  by  a  woman 
named  Ileniy.  The  captain  sent  two  of  his  officers  into  the 
house  in  plain  clothes.  The  result  of  their  visit  was  that  six 
girls  wei'e  arrested  for  an  indecent  exposure  of  person  ;  the 
keeper  of  the  place,  the  woman  Henry,  was  arrested  as  a 
partioeps  criminis,  and  three  other  girls  who  were  inmates 
were  arrested  as  witnesses.  What  ensued  is  a  curious  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  ineflicienc}^  of  the  manner  in  which  the  law 
deals  with  such  cases  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
woman  gave  bail  at  once,  when  taken  before  the  magis¬ 
trate,  to  go  to  the  Court  of  General  Sessions  ;  the  six  girls 
were  tried,  very  properly  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  the 
penitentiary  for  a  year  (the  testimony  of  one  of  them, 
Annie  Wilson,  was  taken  before  the  committee  when  visit¬ 
ing  Blackwell’s  Island,  and  will  be  found  on  page  1080); 
the  other  three  girls,  against  whom  no  charge- whatever 
was  made,  Avere  sent  to  the  House  of  Detention  for  wit¬ 
nesses  upon  the  29th  of  January,  1875,  and  remained 
until  the  1st  of  June,  1875 — four  months  and  three  da3's 
— and  were  then  discharged ;  nor  has  any  prosecution 
of  the  complaint  against  the  kee])er,  certainly  by  far 
the  principal  offender,  ever  been  had.  The  ]iet  result 
is  that  the  six  girls,  the  woman’s  instruments,  were 
sent  to  prison  for  a  year  ;  thi-ee  of  the  girls,  innocent, 
so  far  as  the  law  knew,  of  any  offence,  were  locked 


17 


up  for  four  mouths;  while  the  instigator,  the  money¬ 
maker  of  the  parties,  went  scot  free,  and  resumed  business, 
at  the  same  place,  immediately.  The  extraordinary  con¬ 
tempt  with  which  some  of  these  people  hjok  upon  any  ef¬ 
forts  to  suppress  tliem  is  well  illusti’ated  in  the  case  of 
Sarah  Meyers,  whose  name  recurs  again  and  again 
throughout  the  testimony  taken  on  this  subject  before  the 
committee.  She  lives  in  the  Fifteenth  Ward,  and  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  the  proprietor  and  responsible  manager  of  an 
indefinite  number  of  disreputable  houses  in  that  neigh¬ 
borhood.  She  has  been  fourteen  times  indicted,  and 
twice  tried  ;  on  one  occasion  she  received  a  sentence  of 
four  months  in  the  penitentiaiy,  which  she  served  out ; 
on  the  second  occasion,  the  presiding  justice,  deeming  her 
a  fit  object  for  mere}’,  suspended  the  sentence.  The  man¬ 
ner  in  which  she  treated  citizens  who  presumed  to  com¬ 
plain  of  her  is  exquisitely  illustrated  in  the  testimony  of 
Hanna  (pages  65  to  69).  The  ramifications  of  her  infiu- 
ence  ap])ear  to  extend  in  every  direction  ;  police  magis¬ 
trates  let  her  go  on  parole  (page  2134) ;  witnesses  against 
her,  whose  names  were  sent  in  to  the  prosecuting  officers, 
were  not  subpccnoed  (page  2135);  and  the  burlesque  of 
the  whole  matter  is  found  in  the  remark  of  an  attache  of 
the  District  Attorney’s  office,  “  That  it  was  a  perfect  piece 
of  persecution  against  this  j)Oor  woman  ”  (page  2136).  It 
was  of  this  woman  that  a  man,  who  was,  for  nearly  two 
and  a-half  years,  captain  of  the  precinct  in  which  she  re¬ 
sided,  testified  that  he  did  not  know  that  she  kept  a  house 
of  prostitution. 

HOUSES  OWNED  BV  liESPECTABLE  CITIZENS. 

Among  the  other  curious  elements  that  enter  into  this 
subject  of  prostitution,  is  the  fact  that  a  number  of  houses 
2 


18 


ill  the  Eighth  and  Fifteenth  Wards,  wliich  are  let  and  oe- 
cnpied  as  low  dens,  are  owned  highly  reputable 
people,  some  of  them  pillars  of  the  Church  and  State. 
Some  of  these  worthies  were  brought  before  the  com¬ 
mittee  and  testitied  (see  pages  53,  135,  2277,  2344,  and 
2724) ;  in  other  cases  whei’e  the  business  was  transacted 
through  agents,  the  agents  were  examined  (see  pages  90, 
2281,  2352,  2354).  Quite  a  number  of  these  persons  have 
been  indicted,  but  the  indictments  appear  to  be  mere  mat¬ 
ter  of  form,  as  one  of  the  parties  against  whom  these  in¬ 
dictments  had  been  found,  testified  before  the  committee, 
that  he  was  then  serving  on  the  Grand  Jury  himself  (page 
136).  It  is  not  a  pleasing  subject  for  contemplation,  that 
these  most  disreputable  houses  should  carry  grist  to  the 
mills  of  highly  reputable  citizens,  nor  is  it  an  agreeable 
thought  for  citizens  of  Kew  York  that  an  indictment 
stands  on  record  against  an  ex-Mayor  of  the  city  for  own¬ 
ing  a  house  of  prostitution  (page  62).  The  assurance  that 
some  of  these  reputable  gentlemen  showed,  when  exam¬ 
ined  before  the  committee,  is  almost  ludicrous.  On  page 
2344,  et  seq.,  will  be  found  the  testimony  of  one  of  them  ; 
it  will  appear  that  he  claims  absolute  ignorance  of  the 
disreputable  character  of  his  house,  but  that  he  never  in¬ 
quired  of  the  captains,  nor  took  any  steps,  apparer.tly,  to 
find  out  what  they  were.  On  page  2348  are  the  following 
questions  and  answers : 

“  By  the  Chairman  : 

‘■^Q.  Do  you  say  that  you  know  now  for  the  first  time, 
to-day,  that  those  houses  are  kept  as  houses  of  prostitution  ? 

“J..  I  have  heal’d  insinuations  made — that  is  all. 

“  Q.  Did  you  hear  that  the  Grand  Jury  insinuated,  by 
finding  an  indictment  against  your  brother  ? 


“A.  Yes,  sir;  I  understood  that;  that  is  a  year  and  a 
half  ago. 

“  Q.  That  is  a  very  strong  insinuation,  isn’t  it  ? 

“A.  They  were  all  turned  out,  except  one  house.” 

Which  last  answer  is  not  true.  A  little  social  ostracism 
administered  to  such  worthies  would  do  more  good,  per¬ 
haps,  than  all  the  criminal  laws  that  could  be  passed. 

BI.AME  PXSEWIIERE  THAN  ON  P(.)LICE. 

In  this  connection  it  is  proper  to  say  that  all  the  blame 
must  not  be  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  police.  Again 
and  again  houses  of  prostitution  that  were  disorderly  have 
been  “  pulled  ”  (a  police  term,  meaning  arrested),  and  the 
inmates  taken  before  the  magistrates ;  again  and  again 
magistrates  have  dismissed  such  cases,  either  from  an 
honest  opinion  that  the  testimony  was  insufficient  for  a 
conviction,  which  was  assuredly  in  most  cases  utterly  erro¬ 
neous,  or  from  some  other  less  creditable  motive.  Hun¬ 
dreds  of  others  have  been  held  by  magistrates,  have 
given  bail  to  go  to  the  General  Sessions,  have  been  indicted 
there,  and  nothing  has  ever  been  done  with  them.  After 
giving  bail  they  resumed  business  directly,  either  in  the 
same  place  or  in  an  immediately  adjoining  one. 

GAMBLING. 

Another  phase  of  crime,  depending  for  its  existence 
almost  exclusively  upon  the  connivance  or  inefficiency  of 
the  police,  is  gambling,  which  takes  in  the  city  of  Hew 
York  a  multitude  of  phases.  There  are,  it  is  claimed,  one 
or  two  places  which  are  conducted  honestly ;  there  have 
been  multitudes  of  others,  known  in  police  vernacular  as 
“skin  games;”  then  there  are  absolute  swindles,  such  as 


20 


“  l)aiico”  and  others.  A  graphic  and  interesting  descrip¬ 
tion  of  these  Tai’ions  gambling  games  will  be  found  on 
pages  1516  c’i  seq.  It  is  the  opinion  of  all  the  competent 
witnesses  scattered  throngliout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  testimony  that  gambling  houses  could  not  continue  in 
a  precinct  without  the  connivance  of  the  police  force,  un¬ 
less  it  be  in  the  case  of  a  very  few  places  whose  doors  are 
closed  and  barred,  and  into  whose  doors  no  person  is  ad¬ 
mitted  who  is  not  known  to  the  doorkeepei’S.  While  very 
great  improvement  in  respect  to  the  number  of  gambling 
houses  has  taken  place,  especially  since  the  sessions  of  this 
committee  began,  we  cannot  doubt  that  there  is  room  for 
still  further  amelioration  in  the  condition  of  the  city  in 
this  respect ;  and  it  will  only  come  when  the  existence  of 
a  gambling  house  for  anj’  length  of  time  in  the  precinct 
of  a  captain  is  made  adequate  cause  for  his  dismissal  from 
the  force.  Several  of  the  best  officers  have  indicated 
their  willingness  to  be  subjected  to  a  rule  that  shall  hold 
their  positions  responsible  for  the  continued  existence  of 
gambling  houses  within  thirt}'  days  after  powei’  is  given 
them  to  suppress  it.  This  is  a  subject  which  ought  to  be 
treated  with  the  greatest  severit}'  by  an  efficient  police 
force  in  a  great  city  like  New  York,  and  while  the  com¬ 
mittee  believe  that  it  cannot  be  absolutely  possible  to 
suppress  gambling  altogether,  there  is  no  doubt  in  their 
minds  that  it  can  be  so  far  suppressed,  that  unwaiy 
strangers  who  come  to  the  city  cannot  be  led  into  any 
such  place  as  those  in  which  so  many  have  been  plundered 
of  their  money.  There  is  no  doubt  Avhatsver  that  gam- 
blins:  houses  have  been  run  in  active  collusion  \vith  the 
police  ;  the  whole  judgment  jind  common  sense  of  the 
community  point  that  way,  and,  though  a  difficult  topic 
upon  which  to  get  testimony,  sparks  of  evidence  before  the 


21 


committee  indicate  this  in  a  manner  not  to  be  doubted. 
It  is  utterly  beyond  credence,  for  instance,  that  a  place  as 
notorious  as  Mike  Murray’s  “keno”gameon  Broadway, 
was,  when  Mr.  Fember  visited  it  in  1871,  (see  page  208,  et 
seq.),  could  have  been  kept  open  two  nights  without  the 
direct  connivance  of  the  police,  notwithstanding  the 
doubts  e.xpressed  by  the  captain  of  the  precinct  as  to 
whether  or  not  Murray  kept  a  gambling  house,  (page 
304). 

LOTTERY  AND  POLICY. 

The  lowest,  meanest,  worst  form,  however,  which  gam- 
bliug.takes  in  the  city  of  New  York,  is  what  is  known  as 
policy  playing.  Policy  is  described  pretty  thoroughly  in 
the  testunony  of  Marcus  Cicero  Stanley  (page  1570,  et 
seq.),  who,  undoubtedly,  knows  all  about  it,  having  him¬ 
self  been  in  the  business.  It  is  described  by  him  as  a 
parasite  on  lottery,  and  the  description  is  a  terse  and  cor¬ 
rect  one.  In  direct  and  flagrant  violation  of  law,  lotteries 
which  are  said  to  be  chartered  by  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  of  Kentucky,  are  advertised  in  many  of  the  leading 
journals  of  the  city  of  New  Y"ork,  and  their  daily  di'awings 
published  through  the  same  medium.  A  full  :tnd  enter¬ 
taining  account  of  the  lottery  business  will  be  found  in 
the  testimony  of  Mr.  Stanley,  with  copies  of  the  schemes, 
drawings  and  lottery  tickets,  and  a  more  full  explanation 
of  the  complications  of  the  matter  for  those  who  care  to 
examine  into  it.  Policy  selling  appears  to  be  a  betting 
by  individuals  with  policy  dealers  upon  the  result  of  the 
daily  drawing  of  the  lotteries  in  Kentucky.  It  does  not 
involve  the  purchase  of  a  lotteiy  ticket,  but  is  mei’clv  a 
private  wager  ui)on  the  result  of  a  lottery  drawing 
A  number  of  people,  estimated  by  some  at  as  large 


22 


a  number  as  1100  at  times,  altliou^li  this  number 
we  believe  to  be  an  exaggeration,  but  certainly  several 
hundreds,  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  selling  polic}’^ 
in  the  city  of  New  York;  and  while  all  classes  of  the 
community  do  more  or  less  mingle  in  the  purchase,  yet  by 
far  the  greater  poi'tion  of  the  purchasers  are  found  among 
the  poorest,  lowest,  and  the  most  ignorant  classes  of  the 
community.  Di-eam  books  are  published  by  these  policy' 
people,  and  small  soothsayers  delude  the  ignorant  bj"^  ad¬ 
vising  them  as  to  lucky  numbers.  In  the  testimony  of 
Luthy,  himself  a  large  policy  dealer,  is  found  a  remark¬ 
able  statement  of  the  character  of  policy  (page  1600). 
“  It  is  a  right  down  incorporated  swindle  from  the  word 
‘go,’  right  through;  it  ought  to  be  stopped.  To  make 
a  long  story  short,  it  makes  boys  steal  revenue  stamps  and 
go  and  sell  them,  and  women  take  the  bank-book  of  the 
men,  and  when  they  want  to  go  into  business,  where’s  the 
money?  It  takes  the  pennies  off  dead  men’s  eyes.”  Most 
of  these  small  dealers  transact  business  in  little  shops, 
some  of  them  marked  “  Exchange,”  with  a  few  gold 
dollars  in  the  window  to  carry  out  the  idea ;  many  of 
them  small  segar  stores  or  petty  liquor  stores;  some 
even  of  J:he  dealers  have  no  stores  themselves,  but 
perambulate  the'  streets  with  polic}’  books,  from  which 
they  scribble  tickets.  The  majority'  of  these  men  do  not 
do  business  on  their  own  account,  but  are  simpl}^  petty 
employees  of  the  central  organization.  This  central  or¬ 
ganization  has,  in  the  testimony  before  the  committee,  a 
somewhat  misty  form,  and  clouds  of  doubt  and  unwilling¬ 
ness  to  testify  accumulate  before  it ;  yet  there  is  no  doubt 
that  it  is  substantially  the  same  bod}’^  of  men  who  own  the 
lottery  f  i-anchises  in  Kentucky ;  that  they  are  widely 
known  to  the  police,  to  the  other  authorities  of  the  city. 


23 


and  to  many  citizens;  tliat  they  are  wealthy,  {)Ovverfnl, 
and  influential,  and  that  their  wealth,  their  power,  and 
their  influence,  have  in  some  indescribable  way  stood  for 
years,  not  only  between  themselves  and  punishment,  but 
between  their  hirelings  who  swindle  the  poor  and  the  de¬ 
luded,  and  the  punishment  that  was  their  just  due. 
Arrests  have  been  made  again  and  again  of  policy  deal¬ 
ers.  In  many  instances,  no  doubt,  the  polic.e  force  have 
been  in  active  collusion  with  them,  and  in  many  other 
instances^  the^police  force  seem  to  have  discharged  their 
duty  in  this  particular  ;  hut  from  the  whole  catalogue  of 
arrests,  althougli  they  have  been  followed  by  hundreds  of 
indictments,  y^our  committee  have  been  able  to  learn  of 
but  two  convictions  of  policy  dealers  for  years  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  So  i)owerful,  indeed,  is  the  central  or¬ 
ganization,  that  it  is  able  to  maintain  not  oidy  a  defensive 
but  au  ott’ensive  stand,  and  to  wage  war  upon  those  indi¬ 
vidual  dealers  who  choose,  as  the  phrase  is,  to  “  back  their 
own  books;”  that  is,  to  do  their  own  betting  on  policy, 
and  nut  to  act  as  hirelings  of  others.  A  curious  story  of 
this  will  be  found  in  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Luthy,  above 
referred  to.  Ca])tain  Hedden  states  (page  456),  that 
policy  shops  are  to  be  found  in  nearly  all  the  precincts  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  and  tliat  about  twenty  existed  in 
the  Fifteenth  Precinct  alone  when  he  was  in  command  of 
it.  A  curious  illustration  of  the  intense  folly,  to  say  the 
least,  of  the  way  in  which  courts  deal  with.  p<flicy,  will 
also  be  found  Iti  the  testimony  of  Captain  Iledden  (page 
403).  Discharging  his  duty  efticiently  and  intelligently, 
and,  indeed,  in  the  only  way  in  which  it  could  he  dis¬ 
charged,  he  sent  an  officer  in  plain  clothes  to  purchase  a 
policy  slip  ;  upon  that  he  arrested  the  dealer,  who  was  dis- 
<;harged  l)y  the  Court  on  the  ground  that  the  police  was  a 
party  to  the  crime. 


24 


IIOKSE-OAK  THIEVES. 

Another  pliase  of  crime  which  depends  largely  for  its 
existence  either  upon  the  connivance  or  the  utter  inefficiency 
of  the  police  force  is  the  horse-car  robbery.  This  matter 
will  be  found  very  fully  narrated  before  the  committee  in* 
the  testimony  of  Mr.  fiance,  the  superintendent  of  the  Dry 
Dock  and  East  Broadway  Railroad  (page  2418),  Mr- 
Fields,  the  superintendent  of  the  Third  Avenue  Railroad 
(page  2240),  lion.  John  W.  Smith,  ex-superintendent  of 
the  Second  Avenue  Railroad  (page  2440),  and  in  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  conductors  Mooney  (page  2522),  Dermody  (page 
2525),  Lennox  (page  2526),  and  Fry  (page  2528).  Eight 
or  ten  men,  always  the  same,  perfectl}'  notorious  to  the 
police,  \*’hose  names  and  residences  ex-detective  Mar¬ 
tinet  was  thoroughly  familiar  with,  embark  on  the  cars 
and  hustle  passengers  about  on  the  platform,  rob  them 
with  the  utmost  ease,  making  scarcely  any  concealment 
about  the  matter,  and  if  the  conductor  resists,  or  if  he 
even  warns  a  passenger,  they  avail  themselves  of  the  first 
opportunity  to  knock  him  on  the  head.  And  one  of  the 
conductors  testifies  that  the  detective  at  the  termination  of 
the  line,  placed  there  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  pas¬ 
sengers,  was  seen  by  him  in  amicable  conversation  with 
some  of  the  thieves.  This  particular  officer,  by  the  way, 
is  no  longer  an  ornament  of  the  force. 

OTHER  CRIMES. 

Your  committee  by  no  means  wish  to  be  understood 
as  saying  that  these  particularized  crimes  are  the  only 
ones  which  proceed  with  the  c.onnivance  of  the  police. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt,  that  all  the  classes  of 
criminals  in  the  city,  have  received  more  or  less  assistance 


25 


from  the  police,  but  these  have  been  specified,  because 
their  absolute  existence  would  be  utterly  impossible  if  the 
police  force  was  efficient  and  upright. 

KYAN  CASE. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  exceeding  bad  judgment  with 
which  the  police  force  manage  crirninalindicia^^xQ^K.'^&w 
case  is  worthy  of  notice.  (See  page200-f,  et  seq.)  Nicho¬ 
las  and  Mary  Ryan,  a  brother  and  sister  occupying  jointly 
a  room  in  a  tenement  house,  were  found  dead  in  Decem¬ 
ber,  1873.  Mary  Ilyan  lay  dead  on  the  floor  of  her  room 
up  two  pair  of  stairs,  with  her  throat  cut  nearly  from  ear 
to  ear.  Nicholas  Ryan,  the  brother,  lay  dead  at  the  foot 
of  the  second  flight  of  stairs  with  his  throat  (>ut.  No 
weapon  of  any  kind  was  found  anywhere  near  either  of 
the  bodies,  excepting  a  little  pen-knife  which  was  found 
on  the  floor  of  the  bed-room  near  Mary  Ryan’s  body.  Two 
policemen,  hearing  a  cry  from  the  window,  entered  the 
house,  went  up  stairs,  found  the  body  of  Nicholas  Ryan 
on  the  landing,  and  found  the  body  of  Mary  Ryan  in  the 
room.  They  removed  and  covered  her  body,  removed  the 
articles  'of  clothing  found  on  a  chair  and  placed  them  on 
the  bed,  handled  them  with  bloody  hands,  handled  the 
pen-knife  and  covered  that  with  blood,  walked  up  and 
down  the  house  and  suffered  everybt)dy  else,  who  saw  fit, 
to  do  so,  distributing  bloody  inn)ressions  in  every  direc¬ 
tion,  and  finally,  under  the  direction  of  their  superior  offi¬ 
cer,  a  roundsman,  carried  the  body  of  Nicholas  Ryan  from 
the  ])lace  where  it  lay  to  the  room,  where  they  laid  it  clown 
by  the  side  of  the  sister  ;  thus  obliterating  almost  all  the 
circumstances  which  might,  by  a  careful  and  attentive 
scrutiny,  have  revealed  the  secret  of  the  mysteiy  which 


26 


ever  afterwards  remained  a  sealed  one.  Any  person  wlio 
chose  to  was  allowed  to  leave  the  lionse ;  no  search  was 
made  of  the  adjacent  houses  or  of  the  adjacent  rooms.  No 
discretion,  no  judgment,  no  common  sense  even,  seems  to 
have  been  shown  by  the  police  authorities  in  this  bloody 
tragedy.  Tlie  testimony  of  the  then  coroner.  Nelson  W. 
Young,  severely  condemns  the  conduct  of  the  police  in 
this  matter. 

DETECTIVE  FOKCE. 

• 

That  all  the  other  classes  of  crime  have  received  at 
times  the  earnest  support  of  the  police,  will  appear  by  look¬ 
ing  at  the  detective  system  of  the  police  force  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  The  detective  sj'stem  of  the  city  is  divided 
into  twf)  branches,  the  head-quarters  detectives  and  the 
ward  detectives,  although  the  latter  do  not  seem  to  be  ex¬ 
pressly  recognized  by  that  name,  and  are  variously  styled 
at  times  in  the  testimony  “  ward  detectives.”  “  special  duty 
men,”  “  detail  men  ”  and  by  various  other  appellations.  The 
head-quarters  detective  force  consisted  of  about  twenty- 
five  men  under  the  command  of  a  captain  up  to  January, 
1875.  The  ward  detectives  were  about  two  in  number,  in 
each  precinct,  although  varying ;  there  being  sometimes 
only  one  and  sometimes  three  or  four.  The  duties  of  the 
head-quarters  detectives  were  the  investigation  of  crimes 
assigned  to  them  for  that  purpose  bj'^  the  superintendent. 

The  duties  of  the  ward  detectives  were  also  the  investi¬ 
gation  of  crimes  in  the  precincts,  and  in  this  respect  they 
and  their  captains  at  times  clashed  with  the  head-quarters 
detectives  ;  and  they  were  also  understood  to  be  in  general 
supervision  of,  and  acquaintance  with,  criminals,  thieves, 
prostitutes  and  gamblers,  in  their  respective  precincts.  In 
addition  to  this,  a  very  important  branch  of  their  business 


27 


seems  to  have  been  the  management  of  the  financial  re¬ 
lations  between  the  dishonest  captains  and  the  criminal 
classes  under  their  control.  This  latter  fact  will  be  found 
reitei-ated  again  and  again,  witli  greater  or  less  emphasis 
in  different  portions  of  the  committee’s  testimony,  and  of 
the  fact  there  can  be  no  question  whatever.  The  ward 
detectives  are  selected  by  the  captains  from  the  patrolmen 
under  their  command,  a  most  ingenious  method  of  making 
them  the  absolute  tools  of  their  captains.  Indeed,  at 
various  times,  the  captain,  on  moving  from  one  precinct 
to  anothei’,  appears  to  have  taken  his  ward  man  along  with 
him,  and  the  same  firm  has  set  up  business  in  a  new 
sphere  of  operations.  That  ward  detectives  are  eminently 
desirable,  that  their  local  knowledge  and  constant  activity, 
would  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  police  force,  your  com¬ 
mittee  cannot  question,  but  that  a  more  hopelessly  ridicir 
lous  means  of  appointing  them,  than  now  exists,  could  be 
devised,  we  do  not  believe. 

The  headquarters  detectives  had  continued  pretty  nearly' 
unchanged  for  a  good  many  years,  saving  the  natural 
changes  that  arose  from  the  passage  of  time,  and  there  is 
no  doubt  whatever  that  in  shrewdness,  in  experience,  and 
in  capacity,  many  of  them  were  abundantly  equal  to  the 
duties  imposed  upon  them.  There  is,  unfortunately,  also, 
no  doubt  that  a  great  majority  of  them  were  rascals.  The 
stoiy  of  their  wrong  doing  is  a  sickening  one,  for  it  shows 
that  these  guardians  of  the  ptdfiic,  these  men  whose  duty 
it  was  to  ferret  out  and  bring  to  justice  criminals,  were 
not  only  the  active  partners  of  criminals,  but  absolutely 
their  instigators  to  crime.  The  whole  story  will  be  found 
in  the  evidence  submitted  by  the  committee,  but  a  few 
illustrations  of  it  may  here  be  given.  In  the  winter  of 
1873  a  large  amount  of  forgeries  were  perpetrated  in 


28 


Eiig'land  upon  the  Bank  of  England — the  forgers  being 
Americans,  of  whom  the  two  most  conspicuous  were  Bid- 
well  and  MacDonell.  MacDonell’s  confession,  directly 
implicating  the  detectives,  will  be  found  at  page  1639  of 
the  testimony  taken  before  the  committee,  and  although 
it  is  the  statement  of  a  convicted  felon,  the  committee 
see  no  reason  whatever  to  disbelieve  it,  substantiated  as 
it  is  by  man}'  pieces  of  circumstantial  evidence.  The  evi¬ 
dence  before  the  committee  traces  home  to  the  cliief  of  the 
detective  force  two  cable  dispatches  from  MacDonell 
sent  from  London  and  asking  the  captain  to  meet  him  on 
his  arrival  in  New  York.  The  evidence  of  Clapp  and 
Bennett  (pages  1369  and  1621)  shows  that  the  same  officer 
was  in  j’eceipt  of  a  telegiam  from  Bid  well,  at  Ilavaiia. 
The  testimony  of  an  employee  in  the  Post  Office  (page 
1659)  shows  that  registered  letters  which  MacDonell  says 
in  his  confession  he  mailed  at  Charing  Dross,  arrived 
from  Charing  Cross  and  were  delivered  at  the  respective 
residences  of  the  captain  of  the  dectective  police  and 
one  of  his  subordinates  and  were  there  respectively 
receipted  for  by  an  inmate  of  the  captain’s  house,  and  by  the 
subordinate  in  person.  It  is  a  curious  commentary  upon 
this  testimony  that  tlie  old  Board  of  Police  in  the  year 
1873,  who  held  what  they  were  pleased  to  call  a  trial  of 
these  officers  upon  those  charges,  refused  to  receive  any 
of  this  testimony  and  so  conducted  themselves,  that  the 
present  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  wlio  re¬ 
presented  the  Bank  of  England  there,  retired  from  the 
conduct  of  the  case  in  disgust,  while  the  accused  were 
Ibonorahly  acquitted.  The  Quincy  bank  robbery,  a  bur¬ 
glary  upon  a  baid<  in  Quincy,  Illinois,  is  another  illustra¬ 
tion  of  the  way  in  which  the  headquarters  detectives  did 
business.  The  conduct  of  the  detectives  in  that  matter 


* 


29 


will  be  found  very  fully  set  up  in  the  testimony  of  Claj^p, 
an  ex-detective,  commencing  at  page  1363.  Clapp,  then  a 
detective,  knew  of  this  I’ohbery,  which  occui-red  on  the 
13th  of  Fehniary,  1873,  and  amounted  to  $184,000.  On 
or  about  the  5th  of  March,  he  learned  from  another  de¬ 
tective,  who  confirms  his  testimony  (page  1370),  who  the 
thieves  were,  and  that  they  were  iii  New  York.  lie  went 
to  the  then  superintendent  of  police,  made  a  stipulation 
with  him  that  ho  should  observe  sehrecy,  and  then  told 
him  the  facts  and  asked  him  to  write  to  Quincy  for  an 
officer  to  come  on  -with  a  warrant  of  extradition.  The 
next  (ilapp  knew  ahont  it,  was  that  the  chief  of  the  de¬ 
tective  force  berated  him  for  not  giving  the  information  to 
him,  and  Clap])  learned  that  the  su})erintendent  had  com¬ 
municated  the  facts  to  the  captain,  and  that  the  western 
officer,  a  man  named  Mc.Graw,  had  arrived  and  had  been 
put  into  the  custody,  not  of  Clap]),  hut  of  two  of  the  cap¬ 
tain’s  particular  pets  on  the  force.  It  should  he  stated,  by  the 
way,  that  the  man  McGi-aw  communicated  with  the  com¬ 
mittee  and  was  leady  to  come  from  Quincy,  full}'  to  cor¬ 
roborate  Clapp’s  story  if  the  committee  deemed  it  neces¬ 
sary,  to  charge  the  State  with  the  expense  of  his  jouiaiey ; 
the  fact  that  he  was  ready  to  coi-rohorate  seemed  to  them 
to  he  sufficient,  without  going  through  the  form  of  pro¬ 
ducing  his  evidence.  McGraw  seems  to  have  meant  busi¬ 
ness  ;  hut  the  detectives  in  whose  custodj^  he  was,  wished 
to  take  him  up  to  show  him  the  Central  Park  and  in  other 
ways  amuse  him,  and  went  through  with  him,  with  the  curi¬ 
ous  performance  mentioned  on  page  1808,  which  is  called 
in  the  testimony,  “  standing  a  man  u]),”  that  is,  exhibiting 
him  for  the  information  of  a  man  who  was  represented  to 
him  to  he  a  railroad  agent,  hut  who  turned  out  to  he  an¬ 
other  detective.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  was,  that  the 


30 


thieves  received  such  iiifonnation  from  some  source  or 
other  tliat  they  vanished,  that  no  arrest  was  made,  and 
that  nothing  was  ever  done  t  and  if  the  information  of 
thieves  l)e  regarded  as  of  any  value,  it  will  be  found 
npon  page  1371  that  they  said  tliat  they  paid  $10,000  to 
the  headcpiarters  detectives  in  that  matter.  Another  curi¬ 
ous  story  of  the  headquarters  detective  is  stated  by  Mr. 
Bangs,  superintendent  of  Pinkerton’s  Detective  Agency, on 
page  1634,  being  a  matter  of  forged  Chicago  and  North¬ 
western  bonds,  that  came  to  light  in  the  fall  of  1874.  The 
Pinkerton  Detective  Agency  found  a  man  in  Philadelphia 
who  had  been  concerned  in  issuing  these  forged  bonds, 
and  who  gave  up  to  them  the  names  of  his  principals,  so 
that  they  proposed  to  use  him  as  a  witness  against  them. 
The  principals  were  New  York  bond  forgers,  and  the  next 
circumstance  in  the  story  is,  that  six  of  the  headquarters 
detectives,  headed  by  their  captain,  together  with  two 
other  persons,  proceeded  to  the  residence  of  this  man  in 
Philadelphia  without  any  warrant  whatever,  and  attempted 
to  kidnap  him.  They  got  him  as  far  as  the  station,  on 
their  way  to  New  York,  when  their  plan  was  prevented 
by  the  accidental  interposition  of  two  of  Pinkerton’s  men. 
It  is  a  matter  of  pleasing  contemplation  for  the  citizens  of 
New  York  to  know  that  the  chief  of  their  detective  force 
and  five  of  his  principal  assistants  stand  indicted  in  Phil¬ 
adelphia  for  attempted  kidnapping. 

Finally,  such  a  condition  of  villainy  and  jealousy  arose 
among  the  headquarters  detectives  as  is  illustrated  by 
the  horse-blanket  case,  concerning  which  a  considerable 
amount  of  testimony  was  taken  by  the  committee.  One 
of  a  number  of  stolen  horse-blankets,  which  had  been 
brought  to  headquarters  for  identification,  was  found  in 
the  closet  appropriated  to  the  use  of  two  of  the  detectives. 


31 


and  only  two  theories  cati  be  advanced  to  account  for  the 
fact ;  eitlier  it  was  stolen  by  these  two  detectives  for  the 
nse  of  the  captain,  or  it  was  placed  there  by  some  of  the 
other  detectives,  with  the  malicious  determination  of 
ruining  these  two.  The  committee  do  not  feel  called 
upon  to  weigh  the  conflicting  testimony  on  this  point ; 
but,  in  either  event,  what  a  dreadful  condition  of  demor¬ 
alization  is  shadowed  forth.  After  all  these  matters,  it 
seems  to  be  of  less  account  that  the  most  notorious  re¬ 
ceiver  of  stolen  goods  in  New  York  was  in  the  habit  of 
visiting  the  captain  of  the  detective  force  (page  1359) ; 
that  detectives  witnessed  successful  attempts  on  the  part 
of  other  detectives  to  make  away  with  stolen  goods  found 
upon  the  persons  of  thieves  brought  into  headquarters 
see  pages  1346,  1356,  1362).  That  detectives  employ 
every  means  in  their  power  how  not  to  do  it  when  put  on 
the  scent  of  a  notorious  panel-thief  by  a  victim  (see  pages 
468,  469,  472,  490).  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
detectives  themselves  should  have  become  demoralized 
and  corrupt,  when  their  superior  officers  deliberately  sent 
them  out  of  the  city  to  watch  over  race-courses,  gambling- 
houses,  and  hotels,  and  even  out  of.  the  State,  to  perform 
police  duty  for  another  government  (see  testimony  of 
Captain  Irving,  page  720 ;  Heidelberg,  828  and  830 ; 
Sellick  and  Kerns,  page  848). 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  with  such  a  force,  the 
District  Attorney  and  Mr.  Allen,  the  Assistant  District 
Attorney,  should  utterly  refuse  to  put  any  confldence 
whatever  in  headquarters  detectives  (page  1650).  In¬ 
deed,  Mr.  Allen  expresses  the  opinion  derived  from 
confldential  communications  made  to  him,  that  head¬ 
quarters  detectives  are  not  only  in  collusion  with  thieves, 
but  that  when  certain  thieves  have  tried  to  reform  and 


32 


lead  honest  lives,  they  liave  been  instigated  and  ac¬ 
tually  compelled  into  crime  bj'  the  headquarters  detectives 
(page  1658).  It  is  proper  to  say,  after  these  reflections 
upon  tlie  headquarters  detective  force,  that  in  January, 
1875,  the  Police  Board,  principally  through  the  instru¬ 
mentality  of  Commissioner  Voorhis,  largely  broke  up  the 
headquarters  force.  The  captain  was  sent  to  command  a 
boat  in  the  harbor,  and  many  of  the  men  were  ordered  on 
patrol  duty;  some  of  them,  thereupon,  resigning.  A  few 
wei’e  left  at  headquarters,  in  whom  some  confldence  was 
placed,  and,  in  some  of  them  at  least,  the  committee  be¬ 
lieve  that  this  confldence  is  not  ill-judged.  The  force  was 
then  put  under  the  direct  control  of  the  superintendent, 
he  being  assisted  by  a  roundsman,  and  the  superintendent 
was  allowed  to  draft  in  patrolmen,  from  time  to  time,  and 
ex])eriment  upon  them,  to  see  what  sort  of  a  detective 
force  he  could  create  in  this  manner.  The  results  have, 
so  far,  not  been  very  happy,  and  the  imbecility  of  the 
force  is  amusingly  illustrated  in  the  exploit  of  Chief 
Warlow,  as  narrated  in  his  own  testimony  (page  498), 
and  in  that  of  his  assistant,  Reilly,  an  old  officer 
(page  503),  and  in  the^testimou}^  of  Mr.  Aub,  at  that  time 
one  of  the  counsel  for'  the  committee  (page  511). 
The  counsel  became  aware  of  the  existe)>ce  of  a 
gambling  house,  and  made  application  to  the  superinten¬ 
dent  to  send  a  force  with  him  to  break  it  up.  A  force  of 
detectives  under  the  command  of  Warlow  was  despatched 
and  Warlow  himself  was  taken  to  a  place  where  he  could 
see  the  lights,  hear  the  cards,  hear  the  chips  and  whence, 
if  he  chose  to  extend  his  head  forward,  he  could  have 
seen  the  game.  He  preferred  not  to  extend  his  head,  on 
the  ground  that  if  he  did  he  would  he  seen,  and  stated, 
that  notwithstanding  all  that  he  had  heard,  he  had  not  seen 


33 


gambling  going  on,  and  therefore  he  could  not  do  anything, 
and  so  marched  his  force  home  again.  The  matter  ere- 
i  ted  considerable  i-idicule  in  the  press  at  the  time  it  was 
brought  before  the  committee,  and  in  one  sense  it  is  laugh¬ 
able  enough.  But  it  is  far  from  laughable  to  think  that 
the  interests  of  the  community  in  the  grave  matter  of  the 
detection  and  ferreting  out  of  crime  are  lodged  in  such 
absolutely  imbecile  hands. 

The  pay  of  the  detectives  is  precisely  the  same  as  that 
of  the  patrolmen,  $1,200  a  year,  and  no  increased  compen¬ 
sation  is  given  even  to  the  oldest  and  most  experienced 
officer  among  them,  except  when  he  is  allowed  by  the 
grace  of  the  Board  to  receive  some  portion  of  the  reward 
)iaid  foi-  the  recovery  of  stolen  property.  In  rank  and  in 
salary  the  oldest  detective  stands  merely  on  a  par  with  the 
newest  patrolman  who  walks  his  beat. 

APPOINTMENT  AND  INSTRUCTION  OF  PATROLMEN. 

.V  patrolman,  on  his  joining  the  force,  which  he  does 
after  swearing  to  a  considerable  variety  of  things,  many  of 
which  do  not  seem  to  trouble  his  conscience  much,  as 
witness  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Walters,  at  page  739  and 
740;  and  after  being  certified  to  by  a  number  of  reputa¬ 
ble  citizens  wlio  have  known  him  for  five  years,  which  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  a  mere  form,  as  witness  the  testimony  of  the 
same  individual,  and  that  of  Captain  Robbins,  page  747, 
Mr.  Goodrich,  752,  Mr.  Colliding,  763,  and,  after  passing 
medical  examination  as  to  cpialifications,  is  put  in  the 
school  of  instruction,  under  a  drill  captain,  for  a  month. 
Upon  receiving  Ids  appointment,  and  before  entering  the 
school  of  instruction,  he  becomes  a  full  patrolman  and  no 
power  exists  in  the  Board  to  get  rid  of  him  except  upon  trial 
in  the  same  manner  as  with  any  officer.  At  the  end  of  a 


34 


month,  or  if  he  proves  an  exceptionally  stupid  scholar,  at 
the  end  of  two  months,  he  goes  upon  the  force,  and  from 
the  hour  that  he  receives  his  appointment  he  draws  pay  at 
the  rate  of  $1,200  per  year,  the  same  not  only  as  tlie  oldest 
and  most  experienced  patrolman,  but  as  any  roundsman 
upon  the  force. 

ROUNDSMEN. 

The  roundsmen  are  attached  to  each  precinct,  and  it  is 
their  duty  to  traverse  the  precinct  from  point  to  point,  in 
order  to  see  that  the  patrolmen  are  dischai’ging  their  duty 
faithfully. 

SERGEANTS. 

Above  them  in  grade,  stand  the  sergeants,  who  receive 
$1,600  a  year,  who  are  appointed  by  the  Board  at  pleas¬ 
ure,  after  an  examination  is  held,  and  four  of  whom  are 
attached  to  each  precinct,  while  a  few  others  discharge 
independent  duty,  such  as  the  command  of  court  squads, 
etc.  The  sergeants,  in  turn,  preside  at  the  desk  in  the 
station-house  and  keep  the  “  blotter,”  so  called,  a  book  in 
which,  with  great  minuteness  of  detail,  all  the  transac¬ 
tions  of  police  life  are  entered,  as,  at  “  six  o’clock,  the  new 
pati-ol  goes  out.”  At  6:15  a  sergeant  goes  out  on  leave 
of  absence.”  “  At  6:30  the  captain  goes  out  to  inspect 
the  posts.”  ‘‘  At  6:35  a  prisoner  is  brought  in  by  ofidcer 
so  and  so,  charged  with  such  and  such  an  offense ;”  the 
age,  the  nationality,  the  residence,  the  occupation  of  tlie 
prisoner  are  all  entered,  and,  at  a  subsequent  time,  the 
disposition  made  of  the  case.  The  sergeant,  while  pre¬ 
siding  at  the  desk  in  the  absence  of  the  captain,  exercises 
the  authority  of  the  captain,  and  their  positions  requii’e 
grave  judgment  and  very  considerable  capacity,  coolness. 


and  courage.  The  eoininittee  can  say  that,  after  having 
visited  a  number  of  the  precincts  themselves  and  witnessed 
the  proceedings  there,  they  are  satistied  that  in  the  main 
tliose  duties  are  well  discharged. 

CAPTAINS. 

Above  the  sergeants,  rank  the  captains,  who  receive 
$2,000  per  annum.  Those  in  command  of  the  precincts 
are  absolutely  sup’^eme,  under  the  control,  of  course,  of 
their  superior  officer  and  of  the  law.  Their  power,  and 
the  manner  in  whicli  they  have  exercised  that  power,  has 
been  discussed  at  length  above. 

INSPECTOKS. 

In  rank  above  the  captains  are  four  inspectors,  whose 
salary  is  $3,500  apiece,  and  who,  up  to  the  summer  of 
1875,  seemed  to  be  curiously  unnecessary,  or,  rather,  use¬ 
less  appendages  to  the  police  force.  One  was  in  charge 
of  the  Street  Cleaning  Bureau,  another  acted  as  a  sort  of 
dejmty  to  the  superintendent,  and  the  other  two  were 
daily  supposed  to  wander  about  the  city  and  inspect,  with 
no  pow’er,  with  no  right  to  do  anything  whatever,  except, 
apparently,  to  report  to  the  superintendent.  By  the  exer¬ 
tions  of  Gen.  Smith,  the  })resent  President  of  the  Board  of 
Police,  this  ridiculous  system  was  done  awai’  with,  and  the 
city  w'as  divided  into  four  inspection  districts,  of  which 
the  two  most  important,  the  first  and  second,  include  the 
whole  of  the  city  below’  Forty-second  street,  and  these  are 
now  commanded  by  the  two  oldest  and  most  exj)erienced 
inspectors.  The  inspectors  now  have  authoritj’,  each  in 
their  district,  over  the  captains.  The  captains  report 
daily  to  them,  and  they  report  an  abstiact  to  the  superin¬ 
tendent.  A  small  force,  tw’o  serijeants  and  a  rounsdman, 


8(5 


is  allotted  to  each  inspector,  and  beyond  all  donbt,  with  a 
little  amplilication  of  the  system,  great  good  may  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  flow  from  its  adoption. 

SUPERINTENDENT. 

Above  the  inspectors,  stands  the  superintendent  whose 
salary  is  $6,000  per  annum,  and  who  holds,  perhaps,  one 
of  the  most  important  places,  in  some  respects,  in  the 
United  States.  Beyond  all  question,  more  duties  devolve 
upon  the  superintendent,  than  it  is  possible  for  any  man 
to  do  well.  Not  only  is  he  the  chief  executive  of  the 
force;  not  only  is  he  the  mouth-piece  through  whom 
legitimately  all  the  orders  of  the  Board  must  come ; 
not  only  is  he  charged  with  the  supreme  government 
of  the  force  in  all  its  ramifications,  subject  only  to 
the  written  orders  from  the  Board  of  Police,  but  he 
is  in  addition  charged  with  the  whole  management 
of  the  criminal  business,  the  personal  superintendence 
of  the  headquarters  detectives,  and  a  vast  variety  of  other 
duties  which  render  the  place  one  of  the  most  onerous 
conceivable.  The  present  superintendent  is  an  old  officer 
of  nearly  thirty  years’  standing  on  the  force,  of  un¬ 
blemished  reputation,  and  of  unquestioned  police  ex¬ 
perience,  yet  the  committee  do  not  believe  that  he,  or 
anybody  else,  is  competent  to  dischai-ge  all  the  duties 
which  now  rest  upon  the  Superintendent  of  Police. 

COMMISSIONERS. 

The  Board  of  Police  Commissioners  consists  of  four 
commissioners,  appointed  by  the  Mayor,  one  of  whom, 
elected  by  his  associates  as  jiresident,  draws  a  salary  of 
$8,000,  while  the  other  three  receive  $6,000  each.  They 
are  entrusted  with  the  absolute  government  of  the  whole 


37 


police  force  of  the  City  of  New  York,  subject  only  to 
such  restrictions  as  the  Legislature  has  provided  in  its 
laws.  All  the  rules  and  the  regulations  of  the  De])art- 
ment  emanate  from  them,  and  in  addition  to  that,  all  the 
appointments  and  all  the  promotions  are  made  by  them. 
The  trials  of  all  the  offenses  charged  against  policemen, 
from  petty  offenses  against  the  military  code,  such  as  a 
disordered  button,  up  to  the  very  gi-avest  charges  of 
blackmailing  and  villainy,  are  held  before  one  or  all  of 
the  Commissioners,  and  are  decided  by  the  Board,  as  a 
Board.  It  should  seem  that  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
has  not  deemed  these  duties  sufficient  to  occupy  all  the 
time  of  a  competent  Board  of  Police,  for,  in  addition,  it 
has  imposed  upon  them  the  management  of  the  cleaning 
of  the  streets  of  the  City  of  New  Yoi'k,  a  vast  labor,  which 
employs  a  large  number  of  men  and  carts,  and  which  re¬ 
quires  the  almost  incessant  attention  of  one  at  least  of  the 
Commissioners.  The  Commissioners  are  further  obliged 
to  take  charge  of  the  Bureau  of  Elections,  which,  during 
a  large  portion  of  the  year,  consumes  a  great  deal  of  their 
time.  They  appoint  all  the  inspectors  of  elections,  some¬ 
thing  over  2,000  in  number,  all  the  poll  clerks ;  they 
designate  all  the  ])olliug  jdaces ;  in  fact,  the  whole  ma¬ 
chinery  of  election  is  under  their  direct  and  immediate 
control.  The  president  of  the  Board  of  Police  is  in  addi¬ 
tion  a  member  of  the  Health  Board,  an  ari’angement  the 
desirability  of  which  your  cotnmittee  do  not  question. 

P(  )LITIC  A  L  INTE  RFERENCE. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  experienced  in  procuring 
an  efficient  police,  has  been  the  continual  inlermedling  of 
politicians  with  the  government  of  the  force.  Patndmen 
have  generally  been  appointed  through  political  influence; 


promotions  have  been  made  on  the  same  ground,  and  even 
details  i'or  dnt}'  have  freqnentl}"  been  regulated  iu  the 
same  maimer.  Strong,  healthy  patrolmen  have,  by  such  in¬ 
fluence,  been  detailed  to  lounge  at  the  end  of  piers— a 
light  duty  which  should  be  reserved  for  deserving  veterans. 
The  present  Board  have  announced  to  tlie  force  that  any 
officer  who  procures  politicians  to  attempt  to  influence  the 
action  of  the  Boai-d,  will  receive  no  consideration  at  tlieir 
hands,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  steady  enforcement 
of  this  rule  may  lead  to  the  abatement  of  this  intolerable 
nuisance. 

DISCUSSION  OF  REMEDIES  FOR  EVILS. 

Having  sketched  the  condition  of  the  police  force  as  to 
the  past,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  present,  having  indi¬ 
cated  the  evils  which  exist,  and  many  causes  of  crime 
which  emanate  from  the  authorized  guardians  of  the  public 
peace,  the  more  difficult  duty  devolves  upon  us,  of  point¬ 
ing  out  what  we  deem  to  be  reruedies  for  the  existing 
state  of  things. 

INCREASED  FORCE. 

In  the  first  place,  one  difficult}'  stares  us  directlv 
in  the  face.  There  are  not  enongii  policemen  in 
the  City  of  New  York.  This  is  a  subject  upon  which 
all  the  experts  agree  without  any  dissent  what¬ 
ever.  The  testimony  of  Gen.  Smith,  page  244V; 
the  testimony  of  Judge  Bosvvorth,  -page  2475;  the 
testimony  of  Commissioner  Vooihis,  page  2482; 
the  testimony  of  Inspector  JJilks  ;  the  testimony 
of  Commissioner  Dishecker,  the  testimony  of  Inspector 
McDermott,  and  the  testimony  of  Superintendent 
Walling,  all  confirm  this  statement  in  addition  to 


;'.u 

wliich  nearly  evei’y  one  of  the  captains  who  was  examined, 
stated  the  force  nnder  his  command  to  he  inadequate  to  the 
discharge  of  the  duties  required  of  it;  Gen.  Smith  in  his 
test-imony  at  page  2470,  gives  some  very  interesting 

statistics  showing  the  duties  absolutely  required  of  the 
police  force  as  at  present  organized,  and  it  is  a  rather 
startling  array  of  figures.  It  appears  that  the  total  num¬ 
ber  of  night  posts  in  the  City  of  New  York,  is  820,  the 
aggregate  length  of  the  night  posts  is  825  miles,  3  furlongs, 
38  rods,  5  yards.  The  average  length  of  each  night  post 
is  one  mile  and  2  rods.  The  total  foi'ce  of  patrolmen  in 
patrol  precincts  1,946.  Average  absent  from  any  cause 
408.  Average  effective  force  1538.  Averatje  effective 
force  on  each  night  769.  Average  length  of  each  actual 
night  post,  1  mile,  23  rods  and  2  yards,  aggregate  length 
of  day  posts,  825  miles,  3  furlongs,  38  rods  and  5  yards. 
Avei-age  effective  day  force  384.  Average  length  of  each 
actual  day  post,  2  miles  and  4  rods.  A  patrolman  is  re" 
quired  while  walking  his  beat  at  night,  to  examine  the  door 
of  ever}’  house  on  his  post  and  to  see  whether  or  not  it  is 
closed  securely.  When  the  average  length  of  such  a  post 
is  considered,  one  mile  and  upwards  of  23  rods,  it  may  be 
imagined  easily,  how  long  a  time  it  takes  a  patrolman  to 
get  from  one  end  of  his  beat  to  the  other,  and  how  long  an 
interval  must  ensue  after  the  time  at  which  he  leaves  any 
given  point  on  his  beat  before  he  retui-ns  to  it  again.  The 
criminal  class  dofibtless  know  these  statistics  and  these 
facts  quite  as  well  as  the  authorities  and  much  better  than 
the  average  members  of  the  community,  and  it  is  therefore 
only  necessary  for  them,  when  engaged  in  the  perpetration 
of  a  burglary  or  some  similar  crime,  to  observe  when  the 
patrolmen  on  his  beat  passes  on,  and  they  can  reckon  with 
accuracy  as  to  how  long  a  time  will  ensue  before  he 


40 


retai'Ds.  The  iininl)er  necessary  to  make  the  force  ade¬ 
quate  is  variously  stated,  and  doubtless  the  view  expressed 
by  Inspector  McDermott,  that  2,000  additional  policemen 
are  desirable,  is  true,  but  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  anj'- 
such  number  as  that  can,  in  the  present  iinancial  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  city,  be  given  ;  but  500  additional  policemen, 
are  absolutely  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  lives  and  prop¬ 
erty  of  the  citizens  in  New  York  ;  and  the  economy  which 
deprives  the  tax-pa^^ers  of  such  protection,  is  economy 
which  entails  only  extravagance  in  the  end.  We  most 
earnestly  recommend  to  the  constituted  authorities, 
whether  to  the  Legislature  or  to  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment,  that  another  year  be  not  allowed  to 
ensue  without  500  additional  policemen  being  given  to 
insure  the  safet}'  of  the  people  of  New  York.  On  this 
point  we  desire  to  expi-ess  our  opinion  in  the  strongest 
possible  terms.  And,  in  connection  with  this  matter  of 
expense,  it  ought  to  be  said  that  by  a  reasonable  adjust¬ 
ment  of  wages,  the  additional  expense  can  be  veiy  easily 
settled. 


GKADATION  OF  WAGES  OF  PA'l'ROLMEN. 

The  patrolmen  at  present  receive  $1,200  per  annum,  a 
rate  fixed  in  the  year  1860,  when  the  prices  of  all  the 
necessaries  of  life  were  very  much  greater  than  at  present. 
In  these  times  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  $1,200  a  year 
is  a  compensation  which  would  be  Eagerly  sought  after 
by  many  persons  competent  to  perform  clerical  duties 
requiring  very  considerable  skill  and  education,  and  yet 
the  simplest  recruit  just  entered  upon  the  force  as  a  patrol¬ 
man,  even  before  he  has  gone  through  the  school  of  in¬ 
struction,  receives  this  same  rate  of  compensation.  And  an¬ 
other  absurdity  is  that  such  a  man  should  receive  the  same 


41 


annual  salary  as  an  experienced  officer  who  has  been  on 
the  force  for  years,  aye,  even  as  one  who  has  been  pro¬ 
moted  to  the  responsible  position  of  roundsman.  That  no 
discrimination  should  have  been  made,  that  no  gradation 
of  wages  should  have  been  established,  seems  almost  in- 
ciedible  to  the  committee.  The  committee  recommend 
that  three  grades  of  patrolmen,  as  to  ])ay,  and  not  other¬ 
wise,  be  constituted.  The  tirst  grade  to  receive  $800  per 
annum,  the  second  grade  $1,000,  and  the  third  grade 
$1,200.  That  all  the  new  persons  appointed  to  the  force, 
shall  enter  as  of  the  first  gi-ade  and  shall  only  be  promoted 
into  the  second  grade  for  merit,  or  for  distingnislied  con¬ 
duct,  ill  any  manner  which  the  Board  may  deem  a  proper 
subject  for  promotion  ;  public  notice  of  such  promotion 
to  be  given  by  the  Board.  That  the  three  grades  of  $800, 
$1,000,  and  $1,200  a  year,  shall,  as  near  as  practicable, 
contain  an  equal  number  of  patrolmen  each.  Your  com¬ 
mittee  would  not  recommend  the  present  distribution  of 
the  patrol  force  by  main  force  into  such  a  categoiy,  but 
would  suggest  that  the  Board  of  Police  may  have  discre¬ 
tion  in  tlieir  judgment  to  reduce  in  rate  any  patrolman 
they  deem  proper,  from  the  highest  grade  to  the  next 
lower  or  to  the  lowest,  if  they  think  it  necessary  ;  and  the 
law  should  further  provide,  that  a  punishment  to  be  in¬ 
flicted  by  the  Board  of  Police,  after  judgment  upon  trial, 
may  be  disrating  in  similar  manner.  That  so  soon  as  by 
this  process  of  arrangement  the  force  shall  have  reached 
three  equal  divisions,  at  $800,  $1,000,  and  $1,200,  it  shall 
be  maintained  in  that  ratio  as  nearly  as  possible  and  as 
nearly  equallj’  divided,  and  that  promotions  from  one 
gi’ade  to  the  other,  shall  follow  upon  efficienc}'  and  merit, 
and  not  upon  mere  length  of  service  or  upon  in¬ 
fluence  of  any  kind.  If  this  svstem  weie  now 


42 


adopted,  it  would  be  possible  to  employ  315  extra 
policemen,  without  addiuoj  one  cent  to  the  expense  of  the 
city,  and  this  calculation  is  made  after  allowing  for  the 
increased  compensation  to  the  superior  officers  which  will 
be  mentioned  hereaftei'.  So  that  to  establish  a  permanent 
force  of  500  additional  patrolmen,  would  really  not  re- 
quii-e  a  very  much  greater  outlay  from  the  city  than  it  at 
present  sustains. 


SALARY  OF  ROUNDSMEN. 

The  i-oundsmen  should  receive  an  additional  salary  be¬ 
yond  all  question,  $1,300  a  year;  an  increase  of  $100  a 
yeai-,  would,  probably,  be  enough  in  their  case. 

SALARY  OF  SERGEANTS. 

The  salary  of  seigeants  ought  to  be  raised  to  about 
$1,750  pei-  annum. 

SALARY  OF  CAPTAINS. 

The  captains  now  receive  $2,000  a  year.  On  this  sum 
they  are  expected  to  dress  like  gentlemen,  to  appear  and 
conduct  themselves,  at  all  times,  like  gentlemen,  and  they 
are  exposed  to  some  of  the  severest  temptations  which  a 
man  can  possibly  encounter.  The  compensation,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  responsibility,  the  power  and  the  tempta¬ 
tion,  is  l  idiculously  inadequate,  in  the  opinion  of  every 
coiiqietent  witness  examined  b}'  the  committee,  and  in  the 
nuanimous  judgment  of  the  committee  themselves.  The 
salary  of  the  captains  should  not  be  less  than  $3,000  per 
annum,  and  we  most  earnestly  recommend  to  the  Legisla¬ 
ture  an  increase  of  their  salary  to  that  extent. 


43 


SAI.AKV  OF  IFSl’KCTOKS. 

The  four  inspectors  now  receive  $3,500  a  year  each.  If 
the  captains  are  raised  to  $3,000,  there  should  be  a  greater 
distance  between  their  salaries  and  that  of  the  captaiiivS, 
and  the  committee  recommend  that  their  salary  be  raised 
to  $4,000  each.  Then  there  is  the  detective  foi’ce  to  be 
taken  into  consideration  ;  but  of  tlie  salaries  of  those 
otiice"S  and  of  their  duties  we  shall  speak  presently. 

SUl’EKINTKNDENT  AND  ASSISTANT  SFl'KRINTENDENT. 

The  committee  are  also  of  opinion,  as  shadowed  forth 
in  their  statement  concerning  the  duties  of  the  superin¬ 
tendent,  that  the  obligations  and  labors  imposed  upon  the 
superintendent  are  too  great  for  any  one  officer  to  fully 
pei'form.  We  would  recommend  to  the  Legislature  the 
creation  of  the  office  of  assistant  superintendent  of  police, 
which  officer  shall  be  charged  especially  with  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  criminal  duties  pertaining  to  the  superintend¬ 
ent’s  office;  the  details  of  crime  and  its  suppression  ;  the 
government  of  the  detectives,  both  ward  and  headquarters; 
the  general  charge  of  all  tliat  is  expressly  directed  in  the 
government  of  the  police  force  to  the  ])revention  and 
detection  of  crime.  They  would  then  impose  upon  tlie 
superintendent  the  great  duties  of  chief  executive  of  the 
police  force  ;  directing  it,  gcverning  it,  promulgating 
the  rules  established  by  the  commissioners,  and  issu¬ 
ing  all  the  orders  for  its  management  and  govei-u- 
ment  throughout  the  entire  city.  They  would  i-ecommend 
that  the  salary  of  the  assistant  superintendent  be  the 
same  as  that  now  received  by  the  superintendent,  $0,0* >0, 
and  that  the  superintendent  receive  a  salary  of  not  less  than 
$8,000  a  year.  The  duties  of  this  hitter  office  are  of  such 


44 


great  importance,  the  responsibility  is  so  severe,  that  it  is 
certainly  necessary  that  an  adequate  compensation  should 
be  provided  for  a  man  fitted  to  fill  so  great  a  place.  The 
superintendent  now  alone  of  all  the  force  depends  upon 
the  Board  of  Commissioners  absolutely  for  his  office,  and 
may  be  removed  at  any  time  without  cause.  The  com¬ 
mittee  would  recommend  that  this  shall  continue  to 
be  the  case  with  the  superintendent,  while  the  assistant 
superintendent  shall  be  in  all  respects  assimilated  to  the 
condition  of  the  inspectors  and  other  officers. 

DOORMEN. 

The  doormen,  another  force  employed  on  the  police, 
men  who  have  charge  of  the  locked  prisons  atl  ached  to 
each  station-house,  and  who  perform  various  errands  and 
messages  connected  with  those  various  places,  now  receive 
$900,  which  might  properly  be  lowered  to  $800,  and  the 
committee  would  suggest  that  old  patrolmen  of  good 
standing,  who  are  superannuated  and  unable  further  to 
discharge  police  duties,  may  be  appointed  to  such  posi¬ 
tions,  without  detriment  to  the  interest  which  their  widows 
or  children  may  have  in  the  police  fund. 

PURIFICATION  OF  PRESENT  FORCE. 

The  gj'avest  question  with  which  the  committee  have  to 
deal,  is  the  question  of  what  shall  be  done  to  purify  the 
force  as  now  existing.  Upon  this  subject  great  difference 
of  opinion  has  existed,  not  only  among  witnesses,  but 
among  the  members  of  the  committee  themselves.  It  has 
been  the  opinion  of  many  of  us,  that  the  most  efficient  and 
the  best  way  of  dealing  with  the  police  force,  would  be  to 
give  to  the  commissioners  directly  and  perpetually,  the 
absolute  power  of  removal,  without  cause,  other  than  they 


45* 


deem  the  persons  removed  unfit  for  any  reason  longer  to  re¬ 
main  in  the  force.  This  opinion  is  combatted  by  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  all  the  witnesses,  who  seem  most  thoroughly  to  un¬ 
derstand  the  police  force,  and,  while  the  committee  cannot 
but  deem  it  the  true  theory  of  management,  they  are  not  pre¬ 
pared  to  place  their  opinion,  perhaps,  crudely  formed, 
against  the  views  of  those  who  have,  for  years,  considered 
this  matter  from  a  practical  point  of  view.  But  that 
some  such  power  must  be  temporarily  lodged  somewhere, 
no  man  who  knows  anything  about  the  present  police 
force,  can  doubt  for  a  moment.  It  is  absolutely  essential 
to  the  good  government  of  the  present  force,  and  to  the 
end  of  its  ever  becoming  a  useful  and  profitable  body,  that 
a  larj^e  number  of  its  hiorher  officers  should  now  be  removed 
from  its  ranks;  and  yet  it  is  not  possible  to  obtain  against 
them  charges  which  can  be  sustained  by  such  technical 
evidence  as  will  support  the  review  to  which  they  may  be 
subjected  b}"  an  appeal  taken  certiorari  to  the  Suju'eme 
Court  at  General  Term.  The  consequence  of  this  is,  that 
officers  whom  everyone  of  the  commissioners  and  every 
superior  officer  know  in  their  hearts  to  be  dishonest  and 
unfit  men,  continue  in  the  command  of  precincts,  and  the 
only  way  to  do  anything  with  them  is  to  try  to  put  them 
in  precincts  where  there  is  as  little  to  steal  as  possible. 
We,  therefore,  recommend  to  the  Legislature,  the  passage 
of  a  law  granting  to  the  pi’esent  Commissioners  of  Police, 
a  body  of  men  in  whom  the  public  seem  to  have  justly, 
absolute  confidence,  the  right  to  inquire  into  the  present 
c.ondition  of  the  police  force,  to  take  such  testimony, 
whether  in  public  or  in  private,  as  they  may  deem  pro2)er, 
lo  compel  the  attendance  of  witnesses  by  attachment,  if 
necessary,  and  for,  say,  three  months  from  the  date  of  the 
passage  of  the  act,  to  dismiss  any  member  of  the  force 


•without  assigning  any  reason  therefor  wliatever.  This, 
no  doubt,  is  a  radical  remedy,  but  the  disease  is  such  as  to 
call  for  radical  i-emedies,  and  nothing  short  of  this  can 
possibly  serve  the  present  purpose.  There  are  officers 
upon  the  force  whom  it  is  absolutely  indispensable  in  the 
interest  of  good  government  to  get  rid  of,  and  unless  the 
force  is  purged  of  their  presence,  all  other  measures  taken 
for  its  reformation  will  be  absolutely  futile.  After  this 
tem])orar3^  emergency  is  satisfied,  it  may  be  well  to  restore 
the  system  of  trial,  and  to  provide  that  no  person  shall  be 
dismissed  except  upon  a  trial  and  after  charges  preferred 
and  beard. 

POWKK  'I'O  COMUEr,  ATTENDANCE  OF  WITNESSES. 

But  it  is  certainly  essential,  if  the  Police  Commissioners 
are  to  be  restricted  in  their  dealings  with  their  force,  to  a 
system  of  trial,  that  they  shall  have  the  power  to  procure 
the  attendance  of  witnesses,  and  it  is  absolutely  necessary, 
that  the  Legislature  should  pass  an  act  granting  to  the 
Police  Commissioners  the  power  to  subpoena,  and  the  right 
to  compel  by  attachment,  the  attendance  and  testimony  of 
any  witness  whose  evidence  they  deem  essential  in  a  cause 
before  them.  It  is  a  fact  that,  at  least,  one  captain  of  the 
police  escaped  justice  because  a  patrolman  who  had  re¬ 
ceived  money  directly  for  him,  resigned  from  the  force, 
rather  than  testify  against  him,  and  then  snapped  his 
fingers  at  a  subpoena,  after  he  became  a  private  citizen. 

DICTEC'JTVE  FORCE. 

In  the  first  place  the  headquarters  detectives  and  the 
ward  detectives  should  no  longer  be  separate  and  indepen¬ 
dent  forces.  One  detective  force,  large  enough  in  num¬ 
bers  to  perform  the  duties  of  both  branches,  should  be 


47 


created,  and  the  members  of  that  force  sliould  be  appoin¬ 
ted  directly  as  detectives  by  tlie  commissionei's  upon  the 
recommendation  of  the  superintendent  or  in  such  other 
manner  as  they  may  deem  most  advisable.  The  due  pro¬ 
portion  of  those,  one  or  two,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  each 
precinct,  should  be  assigned  by  the  superintendent  to  the 
different  precincts  to  perform  the  duties  now  discharged 
by  the  ward  detectives  ;  the  value  of  such  services  and 
their  importance  to  the  well  being  of  the  community  not 
being  questioned  even  by  those  commissioners- and  ollicers 
who  most  strongly  deprecate  the  present  manner  of  their 
appointment.  Those  detectives,  while  assigned  to  precincts, 
should  be  subject  to  the  order  or  the  captain  under  regula¬ 
tions  established,  and  should  make  their  report  both  to  the 
captain  and  the  inspector  of  the  district.  As  to  the  duties 
now  performed  by  headquarters  detectives  we  recommend  a 
great  change  in  the  system  in  force,  a  change  which  will  be 
found  mentioned  with  approval  in  the  testimony  of  Com¬ 
missioners  Smith,  Voorhies  and  Disbecker.  We  believe  that 
a  secret  system  of  detective  police  is  the  oidy  one  that  can 
effectually  perform  the  duties  required  of  that  branch  of 
the  force,  and  that  the  “  shadowing,”  the  ferreting  out 
of  criminals  can  only  be  effectually  performed  when 
the  persons  who  are  discharging  that  duty  are  unknown 
to  the  criminals  themselves.  At  present  when  a  crime 
of  great  magnitude  is  committed,  the  indefatigable 
agents  of  the  press  gather  about  i’olice  Headquarters 
in  flocks,  and  it  is  announced  the  ne.xt  day  to  the 
whole  community  that  the  duty  of  ferreting  out 
the  criminal  has  been  assigned  by  the  su]»ei-intendent  to 
Detective  Smith  and  Detective  Jones.  The  criminals,  in 
common  with  all  the  rest  of  the  community,  read  this 
notice,  and  it  is  simply  a  warning  to  them  to  look  out, 


48 


especially  for  Smith  and  Jones,  as  well  as  for  the  general 
detective  force,  whose  jyersonnel  they  know  intimately. 
At  least  a  portion  of  the  detective  force  should  be  known 
only  to  the  commissioners  and  to  the  superintendent ; 
should  never  be  seen  at  police  hcadqnartei’s  ;  should  never 
hold  any  intercourse  with  other  membei’S  of  the  police 
force  ;  should,  when  matters  are  placed  in  their  hands  b}^ 
the  superintendent  for  investigation,  report  to  him,  either 
at  his  private  residence  or  in  writing.  It  may  be  desirable 
that  a  certain  number  of  other  detectives,  known  to  the 
public,  should  be  at  police  headquarters  to  perform  duties 
which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  have  discharged  in  secret, 
and,  perhaps,  it  would  be  well,  for  instance,  that  a  force 
of  thirty  detectives,  besides  the  ward  detectives,  should  be 
established,  say  twenty  of  whom  should  be  secret,  and 
ten  openly  known.  These  latter  and  the  ward  detectives, 
might  make  the  arrests  after  the  facts  have  been  ferreted 
out  by  the  secret  detectives.  But  all  systems  designed  to 
procure  greater  efficiency  in  the  detective  force  must  fail, 
unless  greater  compensation  is  given  to  experienced  de¬ 
tectives.  As  has  been  previously  stated,  the  most  experi¬ 
enced  detectives  receive  only  the  same  compensation,  and 
have  onB  the  same  rank  as  the  common  patrolmen.  This 
should  be  all  changed.  The  lowest  compensation  paid  to 
any  detective  should  be  $1,500  a  year.  From  that  point 
a  graduation  should  be  established  up  to  perhaps  as  much 
as  $4,000  a  year  for  very  experienced  and  accomplished 
officei'S.  In  the  same  way  graduation  of  rank  might  be 
established  among  them,  although  this  point  perhaps  is 
not  of  so  much  consequence  as  the  other.  At  all  events 
they  should  not  rank  as  patrolmen ;  they  should  be  separ¬ 
ated  and  independent  from  the  patrol  force,  and  not  liable 
to  be  ordered  off  upon  patrol  dnty  mdess  reduced  to  the 


49 


grade  of  patrolmen  upon  trial  and  as  a  ])UTiisliment. 
That  with  the  adoption  of  such  a  system,  and  with  the 
acknowledged  skill  of  the  present  Superintendent  of  the 
Police  force,  who  was  long  captain  of  the  detectives,  it 
would  be  possible  to  establish  an  honest  and  effective  de¬ 
tective  force  in  a  reasonably  short  time,  the  committee  have 
no  manner  of  doubt. 


GAMBLING. 

The  committee  have  not  many  suggestions  to  make  on 
the  subject  of  gambling,  so  far  as  the  police  branch  of 
their  investigation  is  concerned.  In  the  portion  of  their 
report  relating  to  the  criminal  courts,  they  have  suggested 
an  emendation  and  sim])lification  of  the  law's  for  the  pun¬ 
ishment  of  gambling.  The  })revention  of  it  seems  to  be 
am])ly  enough  provided  for,  if  the  police  will  do  their 
duty.  The  captain  of  a  precinct  should  be  responsible  for 
the  continued  existence  of  gambling  in  his  precinct,  and 
the  fact  that  a  gambling  house  flourishes  wdthin  his  jnris- 
dictio'.i,  should  be  of  itself  sufficient  ground  for  his  re¬ 
moval.  These  matters  are  wdthin  the  present  pow'er  of 
the  police  commissioners,  and  the  committee  believe  that 
the  present  board  will  enforce  such  a  regulation.  One 
change,  however,  in  the  law'  seems  desirable.  Under 
chapter  453  of  the  Laws  of  1864,  it  is  provided  that 
])rop-erty  used  in  gambling  may  be  destroyed  by  the 
police,  under  such  regulations  as  they  may  make.  Under 
this  law^  it  seems  that  the  counsel  of  the  police  hoard  has 
advised  them  that  they  have  no  right  to  make  any  regu¬ 
lation  for  the  destruction  of  such  pi'operty',  except  after  the 
conviction  of  the  offender ;  and,  in  consequence,  the  ex¬ 
traordinary  result  is  obtained  that  the  police  commissioners, 
the  guardians  of  the  public  order  and  morality,  have  re- 
4 


50 


turned  to  gamblers  a  very  large  quantity  of  gambling 
implements,  from  time  to  time  (see  page  122(),  et  seq.,  list 
of  gambling  property  returned).  Without  discmssing  the 
soundness  of  the  views  enunciated  by  the  counsel  for  the 
police  board,  the  committee  recommend  legislation  detin- 
itely  requiring  the  Police  Commissioners  to  destroy  such 
property.  It  has  been  suggested  that  such  legislation 
would  be  in  contravention  of  the  constitutional  right  that 
a  man  has  to  his  property,  unless  deprived  of  it  by  trial  by 
jury.  This  argument  is  surely  entitled  to  no  weight  what¬ 
ever'.  It  would  apply  with  equal  force  against  the  consti¬ 
tutionality  of  the  statute  providing  for  the  confiscation  and 
destruction  of  burglars’  tools  and  obscene  articles.  When 
articles  are  manifestly  only  to  be  used  for  illegal  purposes, 
the  law  does  not  lean  so  strenuously  to  the  side  of  the 
criminal  as  to  prevent  their  summary  destruction. 

PANEL  HOUSES,  BANCO  GAMES,  ETC. 

No  legislation  upon  these  topics  is  necessary.  It  is  sim¬ 
ply  necessary  that  the  police  do  their  duty.  It  is  the  con¬ 
current  opinion  of  all  those  competent  to  express  an  opinion, 
commissioners,  superintendent,  inspectors  and  captains, 
that  any  captain  can  keep  his  precinct  clear  of  these  classes 
of  crime  if  he  is  competent  and  willing  to  do  his  duty. 
They  should  simply  be  held  to  a  more  rigid  responsibility 
for  the  existence  of  such  places  in  their  precincts  than  has 
been  heretofore  the  case. 

LOTTERY  AND  POLICY. 

The  laws  for  the  suppression  of  this  class  of  crime,  are 
ample  enough,  at  least  in  so  far  as  the  police  duties  are 
concerned,  and  the  only  requirements  are  that  the  laws 
should  be  complied  with  ;  and  that,  after  arrests  are  made, 


51 


punishment  should  ensure.  But  the  committee  would 
recommend  to  the  Legislature  the  passage  of  a  concui-rent 
resolution,  respectfully  inviting  the  attention  of  our  sister 
State  of  Kentucky,  to  the  fact  that  those  swindles  are 
carried  on  under  what  purport  to  be  chartered  fanchises 
granted  under  the  laws  of  that  State,  and  that  the  daily 
drawings  are  reported  to  occur  under  the  supervisou  of 
officials  of  the  commonwealth  ;  and  urging  that,  if  such  be 
the  case,  the  great  wrong  and  knavery  tliat  is  practised  in 
consequence  in  the  city  of  New  York,  should  be  looked 
upon  as  a  sufficient  reason  by  tlie  authorities  of  Kentucky 
for  the  siip])ression  of  so  iniquitous  an  offeiise. 

The  conduct  of  those  public  journals  of  the  city,  which, 
in  direct  violation  of  law,  publish  advertisements  of  lotteries 
to  be  held,  is  most  reprehensible  and  the  statute  against 
such  offenders  should  be  rigidly  enforced. 

HORSE-CAR  ROBBERIES  AND  HABITUAL  CRIMINALS  ACT. 

Upon  the  subject  of  horse-car  robberies  no  direct  legis¬ 
lation  is  necessary.  The  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Martinot 
on  page  2527,  as  to  a  reinforcement  of  the  rule  established 
by  Inspector  Carpenter,  is  undoubtedly  a  good  one,  and 
may  be  recommended  to  tbe  Board  of  Police. 

But,  in  tills  connection,  an  amendment  to  the  Habitual 
Criminals  Act  may  be  suggested.  Though  undoubted  ly  well 
designed,  it  has  proved  ineffectual,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
it  only  provides  for  the  commitmentof  habitual  criminals, 
who  are  found  in  horse  cars,  depots,  and  other  places  of 
public  resort,  with  intent  to  commit  crime  ;  and  the  police 
justices  have  held  that  the  intent  must  be  proven,  and  this 
being,  of  course,  impossible,  the  law  has  fallen  to  the 
ground.  The  Committee  do  not  doubt  that  this  is  an  un¬ 
sound  construction  of  the  law,  but,  to  make  it  clear, 


52 


tlie  statute  should  be  so  amended  that  the  presence  of 
the  habitual  criminal  in  such  places  should,  of  itself, 
be  evidence  of  the  intent,  and  unless  rebutted,  should 
be  deemed  conclusive.  This  may  seem  to  some  tender 
hearts  a  hard  law,  but  unquestionably  the  welfare  of 
society  demands  it,  and  the  interests  of  the  very  few 
innocent  who  may  suffer  under  it,  must  give  way  to  the 
universal  public  good. 


PROSTITUTION. 

In  approaching  the  discussion  of  this  subject,  the  com¬ 
mittee  are  aware  that  it  is  a  most  delicate  topic,  and  that 
the  mei’e  mention  of  it  seems  to  many  people  an  insult  to 
the  morality  of  a  nation.  Your  committee,  however,  can¬ 
not  be  deterred  by  the  fear  of  shocking  sentimental  moral¬ 
ists,  or  even  of  wounding  honest  susceptibilities,  frornmn- 
deavoring  to  throw  some  light  upon  a  subject  which  is  of 
such  vast  importance  to  the  well-being  of  society.  The 
evidence  before  them  shows,  what  every  man  knows  to  be 
the  fact,  that  there  are  large  numbers  of  houses  of  prosti¬ 
tution  in  the  city  of  New  York,  containing  many  inmates, 
and  also  a  large  number  of  individuals  who,  living 
in  their  own  apartments,  continue  to  prostitute 
themselves  there  ;  that  these  scattered 

all  over  the  city,  in  many  instances  being 
found  in  some  of  the  most  fashionable  and 
respectable  quarters ;  that  many  of  them  are  absolute  eye¬ 
sores  to  their  respectable  neighbors,  carrying  on  their  in¬ 
famous  business  not  in  quiet  and  obscurity,  but  flauiiting- 
ly,  openly,  indecently  and  offensively  ;  and  that  attempts 
to  check  even  this  latter  class  are  very  irregular  and  very 
inefficient.  The  law,  construed  to  its  letter,  looks  upon  all 
prostitutes  as  disorderly  persons,  and  upon  all  houses  of 


53 


prostitution  as  disorderly  places.  They  are  under  the  ab¬ 
solute  ban  of  the  law,  and  no  distinction  whatever  is,  in 
theoiw,  made  between  them  In  consequence,  the  result 
flows  which  alwaj's  flows  from  outlawiy,  a  peculiarly  hard¬ 
ened  character,  a  singularly  desperate  life,  and  in  addition 
to  that,  in  the  demoralized  condition  which  our  police  force 
has  attained,  it  being  within  the  power  and  being  in  a 
strictly  legal  sense,  the  duty  of  a  captain  of  police  to  sup¬ 
press  every  house  of  prostitution  in  his  precinct,  it  has 
come  to  be  a  custom  for  the  proprietors  of  these  places  to 
pay  black  mail  to  captains  in  order  to  secure  immunity. 
The  committee  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that 
this  prevails  without  exception  ;  tliey  are  assured  to  the 
contrary  ;  but  that  in  many  cases  such  has  been  the  result, 
and  that  so  long  as  the  law  fastens  an  ineffaceable  stigma 
upon  every  house  of  prostitution,  the  temptation  must  ex¬ 
ist  to  lead  to  that  result,  the  committee  cannot  doubt. 
Under  the  law  as  it  now  stands  no  power  of  classification, 
no  power  of  localization,  no  power  of  restriction  or  con¬ 
trol  or  inspection  is  legitimately  given  to  the  police 
authorities.  Theii-  theoretical  duty  is  to  suj)2'>ress  prosti¬ 
tution.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  which  the  experience 
of  all  mankind  proves,  that  laws  of  this  sort  are  dead  let¬ 
ters  upon  the  statute  book.  Human  nature  is  so  constitu¬ 
ted  that  prostitution  will  coiitinue  in  the  future  as  it  has 
ill  the  past,  no  matter  what  laws  are  fulminated  against  it, 
and  no  matter  liow  strictly  they  are  sought  to  be  enfoi’ced. 
If  the  committee  could  deem  it  probable — if  they  could 
deem  it,  in  the  faintest  degree,  possible — that  the  passage 
of  statutes  of  the  greatest  severity,  and  their  enforcement, 
with  the  most  rigid  honesty,  would  absolutely  put  an  end 
to  prostitution,  and  would  not  lead  to  results  worse  than 
prostitution,  in  turning  unhallowed  passions  into  injiuy  to 


54 


other  spheres  of  life,  they  miglit  recommend  such  statutes 
and  sueli  enforcement;  but  they  must  judge  from  the  ex- 
pei'ience  of  the  world  in  all  its  days,  and  from  the  opin¬ 
ions  expressed  before  them  by  the  wisest  and  most  expe¬ 
rienced  officers  of  police,  that  such  laws  are  absolutely 
nugatory,  and  can  lead  onlj^  to  harm. 

Brought  face  to  face  with  this  fact,  the  question  remains 
for  the  legislative  body  of  this  State  to  decide  whether  or 
not  it  is  Muse  to  continue  the  nominal,  legal  ban  under 
which  prostitution  is  placed,  to  close  the  eyes  of  the  law¬ 
making  power  to  a  fact  wdiich  their  hearts  cannot  ignore, 
and  putting  aside  all  considerations  of  local  welfare,  of 
the  gi  eatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number,  to  go  on  in 
the  future  as  they  have  in  the  past,  taking  no  steps  towai’ds 
permanent  or  healthy  reforms.  Whatever  may  be  the 
odium  incurred  by^  the  suggestion  among  honest  people 
who  have  not  mingled  with  the  world,  who  are  ignorant 
of  its  passions  and  of  their  fatal  effects,  the  committee  are 
willing  to  take  it  upon  themselves  in  earnestly  recommend¬ 
ing  to  the  Legislature  the  regulating  or  permitting,  or,  if 
the  word  be  not  deemed  offensive,  the  li(;ensing  of  prosti¬ 
tution.  They  are  met  at  the  outset  with  the  suggestion 
that  this  is  licensing  crime,  and  in  fact  there  seems  to  be, 
even  in  the  mind  of  so  intelligent  a  person  as  the  super¬ 
intendent  of  police,  an  objection  to  the  word  “  license.” 
As  to  te]’ms  the  committee  are  not  tenacious.  If  any¬ 
body’s  conscience  can  be  soothed,  his  moral  doubts  assuaged, 
by  dropping  the  word  “  license”  and  using  the  word 
“  l  egulation,”  the  committee  have  no  earthly  objections ; 
but  that  the  objection  to  the  substance  of  the  proposition 
is  an  ill-founded  one,  we  cannot  doubt.  It  behooves  legis¬ 
lators  to  take  the  world  as  it  is,  and  to  pass  laws,  not  such 
as  would  be  in  accordance  with  the  highest  code  of  morals. 


bi;t  such  as  would  enable  the  world  to  be  the  best  governed 
and  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness  to  accrue  to  the  great¬ 
est  number  of  people.  Could  we  fusion  our  code  of  laws 
upon  the  code  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  and  of  the  Golden  Rule,  and  could  such  laws  be 
carried  out,  no  doubt  we  would  be  a  far  better  and  a  far  hap- 
*pier  people  ;  but  every  legislator  knows  that  laws  in  pursu¬ 
ance  of  this  high  system  of  morality  cannot  be  enforced,  and 
that  therefore  it  is  idle  to  pass  them.  Legislatures  descend 
to  a  lower  plane.  They  leave  to  the  moral  sense  of  the 
community  tlie  icgulation  of  the  higher  theories  of  honor 
and  duty,  and  content  themselves  with  so  adjusting  their 
legislation  that  property  shall  be  to  the  greatest  possible 
■extent  protected,  that  life  shall  be  as  absolutely  safe  as 
possible,  that  health,  and  that  the  general  welfare  of  the 
people  may  be  iu  the  greatest  possible  degree  augmented. 
Laws  are  not  based  upon  codes  of  ethics.  They  are  based 
upon  the  practical  convenience  of  the  people ;  and  unless 
they  ai’c  enforceable  they  are  worse  than  useless.  An  old 
apple- woman  stops  in  the  street  with  a  tray  covered  with 
apples;  she  is  liable  to  be  arrested,  to  be  removed  by  a 
police  officer,  because  she  is  an  obstacle  to  traffic.  A  man 
suffers  the  benefactor  of  his  life,  the  founder  of  his  for¬ 
tunes,  to  die  in  the  poor-house,  without  giving  him  a  cent 
to  keep  him  from  starvation.  Society  enforces  no  legal 
penalty  against  the  latter.  The  moral  offense  of  the  latter 
is  of  the  highest  order.  There  is  no  moral  offense  in  the 
case  of  the  apple-woman,  yet  the  law-making  power  feels 
that  it  can  enforce  and  render  practically  useful  a  law 
against  obstructing  public  highways,  but  that  no  law 
against  ingratitude  can  be  of  any  practical  avail.  So  all 
legislation  should  proceed  upon  this  wise  theory,  not  to 
aim  at  what  is  best,  but  at  what  can  be  attained  that  is 


56 


best.  This  theory  has  been  recognized  by  repeated  acts  of 
legislation.  The  sale  of  liquor  is  licensed  and  regulated- 
No  man  can  doubt,  certainly  your  committee  cannot,  with 
the  experience  that  they  have  had,  that  at  least  ten  times 
as  much  harm  ensues  to  tlie  community  from  unlimited 
drinking  than  from  the  effects  of  prostitution;  and  yet 
this  evil,  so  much  greater,  so  much  worse  in  its  effects,  is  * 
accepted,  is  regulated,  and  is  licensed.  Is  it  because 
legislatures  have  deemed  it  desirable  that  it  should  con¬ 
tinue?  We  believe  that  the  moi’al  sense  of  . the  commu¬ 
nity  would  put  an  end  to  it  to-morrow  if  it  could,  but  it 
is  because  the  common-sense  of  mankind  has  shown  that 
all  prohibitory  laws  are  absolutely  idle,  that  we  have  re¬ 
fused  to  adopt  them  in  this  community,  and  that  they  are 
only  called  for  by  a  few  honest  and  misguided  fanatics, 
while  the  practical  result  of  licensing  and  regulating  is- 
found  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  beneficial. 

Now,  what  would  be  the  good  effects  of  placing  prosti¬ 
tution  in  the  city  of  New  York  under  police  regulation? 
In  the  first  place,  the  houses  could  be  located  ;  the  keepers 
could  be  required  to  remain  in  certain  localities.  Hespect- 
able  people,  living  quietly  in  their  homes  with  their 
families,  would  no  longer  be  annoyed  by  disreputable 
neighbors,  and  would  be  no  longer  constrained  to  run  from 
police  captain  to  police  court,  from  police  court  t<»  district 
attorney,  from  district  attorney  to  police  commissioner, 
and  back  again  throughout  the  circle,  as  the  witnesses  be¬ 
fore  the  committee  have  testified  that  they  have  been 
compelled  to  do,  without  obtaining  redress  in  the  end.  In 
the  second  place,  the  whole  temptation  as  to  bribery  of 
police  officers  would  cease  at  once.  Prostitution  being 
indirectly  recognized -by  the  law,  the  houses  and  inmates 
being  registered,  the  police  cuptains’  only  authority  over 


57 


them  would  be  to  see  that  they  lived  harmlessly  and  iu 
obedience  to  the  law.  At  the  same  time,  such  a  system 
would  prevent  all  street  walking,  all  indecent  exposure  of 
every  kind,  all  offensive  demonstrations  from  windows. 
Any  prostitute*  who  was  guilty  of  such  an  offense,  should 
have  her  permit  taken  away,  should  be  sent  to  jail ;  and 
every  house  whence  such  demonstrations  issued  should 
have  its  permit  taken  away  and  its  inmates  dispersed.  In 
addition  to  these  reasons,  the  institution  should  be  under 
medical  supervision.  The  doctors  attached  to  the  police 
department,  should  examine  the  inmates,  and  when  they 
are  found  to  be  afflicted  with  contagious  diseases,  they 
should  be  removed  to  the  hospital.  This  is  a  suggestion 
which  doubtless  would  cause  clamor  from  well-meaning 
people,  on  the  ground  that  men  who  visit  these  places 
should  not  be  protected  from  disease.  Without  discussing 
that  question,  the  committee  deem,  that  at  least  all  should 
unite  in  saying  that  even  if  men  should  not  be  protected 
the  innocent  wives  whom  they  marry  and  the  innocent 
offspring  to  whom  they  give  birth  should  be  protected 
from  carrying  with  them  through  life  the  seeds  of  an  in¬ 
sidious  and  dangerous  disease.  And  in  this  connection, 
the  words  of  one  of  the  ablest  of  modern  moral  writers, 
Mr.  Lecky,  in  his  history  of  European  morals,  volume  2, 
page  300,  seem  to  be  apposite. 

“  However  persistently  society  may  ignore  this  form  of 
vice,  it  exists  nevertheless,  and  on  the  most  gigantic  scale, 
and  that  evil  rarely  assumes  such  inveterate  and  j^erverted 
forms  as  when  it  is  shrouded  in  obscurity,  and  veiled  by 
the  hypocritical  appearance  of  unconsciousness.  The  ex¬ 
istence  in  England  of  unhappy  women,  sunk  in  the  verj 
lowest  de[)ths  of  vice  and  misery,  and  numl)ering  certainly 
not  less  than  50,000,  shows  sufficiently  what  an  appalling 


58 


amount  of  moral  evil  is  festering,  uncontrolled,  undis¬ 
cussed,  and  unalleviated,  under  the  fair  surface  of  a  de¬ 
corous  society.  In  the  eyes  of  every  physician,  and, 
indeed,  in  the  eyes  of  most  continental  writers,  who  have 
adverted  to  the  subject,  no  other  feature  of  English  life 
appears  so  infamous  as  the  fact  that  an  epidemic  which 
is  one  of  the  most  dreadful  now  existing  among  mankind, 
which  communicates  itself  from  the  guilty  husband  to  the 
innocent  wife,  and  even  transmits  its  taint  to  her  offspring, 
and  which  the  experience  of  other  nations  conclusively 
proves  ma}^  be  vastly  diminished,  should  be  suffered  to 
rage  unchecked,  because  the  Legislature  refuses  to  take 
official  cognizance  of  its  existence,  or  proper  sanitary  meas¬ 
ures  for  its  repressure.” 

For  many  years  prostitution  has  been  under  rigorous 
regulation  in  Paris,  in  Hamburg,  in  Berlin,  in  Vienna, 
and  in  others  of  the  lai-ge  cities  of  Europe.  Despite  the 
immense  amount  of  prejudice  to  the  contrary,  it  has  even 
been  regulated,  and  with  eminent  success,  in  the  English 
garrison  towns,  such  as  Portsmouth,  the  English  people, 
with  their  curious  lack  of  logical  reasoning,  but  fond¬ 
ness  for  ]n’a.ctical  results  iu  legislation,  having  confined 
the  operation  of  the  law  to  the  garrison  towns  for  the 
benefit  of  their  soldiers,  but  having  been  unwilling  to 
introduce  it  into  the  large  cities,  like  London  and  Liver¬ 
pool,  on  account  of  an  unwise  public  sentiment.  The 
same  system  was  introduced  with  great  success  in  the  city 
of  St.  Louis,  and  a  very  interesting  summary  of  the  work¬ 
ing  of  the  system  thei’e,  with  many  statistics,  will  be  found 
stated  with  remarkable  force  and  ability  in  the  evidence 
of  Inspector  Dilks,  page  2570,  et  seq.  The  statistics, 
which  are  very  curious,  can  be  found  on  page  2579.  The 
concurrent  opinion  of  President  Smith,  Superintendent 


59 


Walling,  Inspector  Dilks  and  Inspector  McDermot,  have 
deservedly  had  great  weight  with  the  committee  in  the 
consideration  of  this  question. 

In  the  interest  of  the  well-being,  the  decorum,  the  de¬ 
cency  of  society ;  in  the  interest  of  the  peace  and  happi- 
nesl  of  by  far  the  greatest  nnmber  of  people;  in  the  in- 
tei’cst  of  the  preservation  of  the  purity  of  the  guardians 
of  the  public  peace;  in  the  interest  of  public  health,  and 
for  the  sake  of  thousands  yet  unborn,  the  committee 
earnestly  urge  nj”)©!!  the  Legislature,  as  the  only  means  of 
grajtpling  with  the  social  evil,  the  granting  to  the  police 
of  the  power  of  regulation,  of  localization,  and  medical 
visitation.  What  fees,  if  any  should  he  paid,  should  be 
left  to  the  judgment  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of 
Police. 

STKKET  CLEANING. 

The  whole  charge  of  cleaning  the  streets  of  the  city  of 
New  York  is  now  under  the  control  of  the  Board  of  Po¬ 
lice.  One  of  the  commissioners  is  compelled  to  devote 
the  gi-eater  portion  of  his  time  to  it,  while  his  colleagues 
have  to  spend  more  or  less  of  theirs.  Two  of  the  cap¬ 
tains  oT  the  force  are  likewise  detailed  on  duty  connected 
with  this  department.  There  is  no  conceivable  reason 
why  the  street  cleaning  should  ever  have  been  attached  to 
the  Police  Department,  or  why  it  should  remain  there. 
It  is  the  concurrent  opinion  of  all  the  late  members  of 
the  Police  Board,  two  of  whom  are  members  of  the  pres- 
CTit  Bedard,  that  the  Street  Cleaning  Department  should 
be  taken  away  from  the  Board  of  Police.  It  merely  oc¬ 
cupies  their  time  to  the  exclusion  of  matters  directly  and 
importantly  connected  with  the  subject  over  which  they 
have  supreme  control,  and  it  has  no  fitness  whatever  in 


60 


their  hands.  As  matter  of  fact,  while,  perhaps,  it  is  pass¬ 
ing  a  little  bej’ond  the  bounds  of  the  committee’s  jurisdic¬ 
tion,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  Street  Cleaning  Bureau 
should  be  attached  to  the  Department  of  Health,  where 
it  seems  to  us  to  belong  with  the  most  eminent  propriety, 
and  its  work  should  be  contracted  and  performed  under 
the  supei'vision  of  the  Board  of  Health ;  or,  if  the  Legis¬ 
lature  are  unwilling  to  do  this,  a  separate  department 
should  be  established. 

THE  nUEEAU  OF  ELECTIONS. 

The  Bureau  of  Elections  is  likewise  attached  to  the 
Police  Department.  They  are  charged  with  the  appoint¬ 
ment  of  some  2240  inspectors  and  1220  poll  clerks,  be¬ 
sides  the  designation  of  about  560  polling  places,  and  all 
the  complicated  work  connected  with  the  election  bureau. 
As  matter  of  theory,  it  would  probably  be  better  to  relieve 
the  Board  of  Police  of  this  incongruous  duty  also,  but  as 
matter  of  fact  and  as  matter  of  convenience,  while  the 
Board  is  constituted  as  at  present,  has  a  non-partisan 
character,  and  seems  to  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the  com¬ 
munity,  it  is,  perhaps,  better  that  these  very  delicate  duties 
should  remain  where  they  are.  The  only  way  that  seems 
equally  advantageous  would  be  to  constitute  a  new  com¬ 
mission  composed  of  an  equal  number  of  members,  and 
non-partisan  in  character,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  charge 
of  the  Election  Bureau,  and  as  the  duties  of  the  Bureau 
of  Elections  only  exist  during  three  or  four  months  of  the 
year,  this  is  probably  not  desirable.  While  recommend¬ 
ing,  therefore,  the  i-emoval  of  the  Street  Cleaning  Bureau 
from  the  Board- of  Police,  the  committee  are  not  prepared 
to  recommend  the  removal  of  the  Bureau  of  Elections. 


61 


LAW  OF  SURVEILLANCE. 

Amongst  the  numerous  excellent  suggestions,  which 
have  been  made  to  the  committee  for  the  suppression  of 
crime,  there  is  one  that  has  struck  them  witli  peculiar 
force.  It  is  that  a  law  should  be  passed  granting  to  the 
criminal  courts  at  the  time  of  sentence,  the  power  of  add¬ 
ing  to  a  sentence  of  imprisonment,  a  sentence  of  surveil¬ 
lance  foi-  an  additional  time,  not  to  exceed  the  term  of 
imprisonment;  that  is  to  say,  if  a  prisoner  is  sent  to  State 
prison  for  four  years,  he  may  at  the  same  time  be  sentenced 
to  four  additional  years  of  police  surveillance,  and  this 
should  be  exercised  in  some  such  way  as  this.  A  registry 
should  be  kept  at  head-quarters  and  every  person  under 
sentence  of  surveillance  should  be  required  while  in  the 
city  to  report  himself  not  less  than  once  a  month  at  head¬ 
quarters,  in  person,  giving  his  name  and  address,  and 
should  he  fail  to  do  so  and  be  found  in  the  city,  he  should 
then  be  liable  to  punishment  as  for  a  misdemeanor.  A 
similar  law  should  be  passed  against  the  use  of  aliases, 
and  persons  giving  a  false  name  when  apprehended  for 
any  offense  should  bo  liable  to  additional  punishment, 
if  found  guilty  of  other  crimes,  or  to  punishment  as 
for  a  misdemeanor  if  no  offense  be  charged  against  them. 
The  effect  of  these  two  laws  will  be  to  make  the  where¬ 
abouts  of  the  criminal  classes  better  known  to  the  police, 

and  the  detectives  will  find  it  easier  to  deal  with  them. 
To  carry  out  the  same  idea,  whenever  a  New  York 
prisoner  is  about  to  be  discharged  from  one  of  the  State 
prisons,  or  from  the  county  penitentiary,  it  should  be 

the  duty  of  the  warden  of  the  institution  to  notify 

the  Superintendent  of  Police  of  the  fact  and  of  the 
date  on  which  the  discharge  will  take  place.  These 


62 


notices  should  be  entered  in  a  record  book  to  be  kept  for 
that  purpose  at  bead-quarters,  and  by  that  means  the  ad¬ 
vent  of  the  criminal  may  be  prepared  for. 

POLICEMEN  IN  POLICE  COUKTS. 

Since  the  adjournment  of  the  committee,  a  dispute  has 
arisen  between  some  of  the  Police  Justices  and  the  Com¬ 
missioners  of  Police  as  to  the  governmentof  the  policemen 
who  are  detailed  to  the  Police  Courts.  Without  enterina: 
at  all  into  the  merits  of  this  controversy,  the  committee  are 
of  the  opinion  that  it  is  a  waste  of  good  material  to  keep 
policemen  detailed  as  process-servers  and  messengers  at 
the  several  police  Courts.  The  judges  should  be  permitted 
to  appoint  a  sufficient  number  of  attendants  for  that  pur¬ 
pose,  and  at  most  one  patrolman  might  be  detailed  to  eacb 
Court  to  perserve  order.  Such  an  arrangement  would  re¬ 
lease  five  sergeants  and  forty  men  for  general  police  duty. 

PENSIONS. 

The  pension  laws  of  the  police  force  should  be  so 
amended  that  the  board  should  have  the  power  to  put  any 
man  on  the  pension  list  who  has  performed  ten  years  or 
more  of  patrol  duty,  and  who  applies  for  such  a  pension 
when  incapacitated  ;  or  to  put  on  the  list  any  one  who  is 
incapacitated  after  the  same  length  of  service,  if  he  does 
not  apply  for  that  action  on  their  part 

OTHER  RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The  police  board  should  have  power  to  take  a  patrol¬ 
man  on  trial.  A  patrolman  when  now  appointed,  before 
entering  the  school  of  instruction,  is  absolutely  a  member 
of  the  force  and  can  only  be  removed  after  a  hearing  of 
regular  charges  and  a  judgment.  It  shoidd  be  within  the 


63 


power  of  the  board,  within  sixty  days  after  the  entry  of 
any  patrolman  on  the  force,  to  dismiss  him  without  cause 
assigned,  simply  upon  the  report  of  the  drill  officers  that 
he  does  not  show  sufficient  capacity  or  willingness  to  learn 
the  duties  properly.  The  persons  so  appointed  should  re¬ 
ceive  pay  for  the  time  which  they  remain  members  of 
the  force.  After  sixty  days  they  should  become  full  mem¬ 
bers,  and  not  subject  to  removal  except  for  cause.  The 
police  commissioners  should  have  the  right  of  removal  on 
the  groiind  of  incapacity  or  incompeteiicy,  a  power  which 
is  not  now  lodged  in  their  hands,  and  yet  one  which  is 
surely  most  essential  to  the  proper  government  of  the 
force.  They  should  have  the  power  to  disrate  as  a  pun¬ 
ishment.  It  might  not,  perhaps,  he  desirable  to  reduce 
captains  to  the  gi-ade  of  sergeants,  because  a  degraded 
captain  would  probably  make  a  very  bad  sergeant,  but  it 
should  be  within  the  power  of  the  Board  to  reduce  ser¬ 
geants  to  roundsmen,  roundsmen  to  patrolmen,  and  patrol¬ 
men  of  one  of  the  grades  to  an  inferior  grade,  as  a  punish¬ 
ment,  on  a  judgment,  after  trial. 

LODGEES. 

Every  station-house  in  the  City  of  New  York  receives 
Tiightly  a  large  number *of  lodgers  of  both  sexes,  who 
spend  the  nights  within  the  station-house.  No  doubt  some 
of  them  are  deserving  and  sutfering  poor.  Many  others 
are  tramps  of  the  most  worthless  character  and  the  most 
vagabond  habits.  The  tramp  nuisance  is  attracting  a 
great  deal  of  attention  throughout  the  country,  and,  be¬ 
yond  all  question,  large  numbers  of  these  vagrants  come 
to  ISew  York,  and  “  revolve”  from  one  station-house  to  an¬ 
other,  living  during  the  day  on  beggary  and  petty  pilfer¬ 
ing.  But  one  way  of  dealing  with  this  class  of  the  com- 


64 


mnnitv  has  been  found  effective,  and  it  is  to  make  them 
work  for  tlieir  lodging.  The  genuine  tramp  has  an  intense 
horror  of  work,  and  the  very  suggestion  of  it  causes  him 
to  flee  to  otlier  parts  of  tlie  country.  The  honest  poor 
will  be  perfectly  willing  to  pay  with  their  labor  for  a 
night’s  shelter  ;  and,  in  addition,  the  city  might  very  prop¬ 
erly  provide  those  who  labor  and  lodge  with  them  a  meal. 
The  work  that  they  could  do  would,  undoubtedly,  be  the 
cleaning  of  the  station-houses,  and,  to  some  extent,  the 
cleaning  of  the  streets.  This  suggestion  is  enforce  d  and 
recommended  by  the  testimony  of  several  of  the  police 
justices  and  other  experts,  including  Mr.  Sinclair  Tousey, 
the  President  of  the  Prison  j^ssociation,  whose  wide  ex¬ 
perience  as  a  practical  philanthropist  entitles  liis  views  to 
the  utmost  respect,  both  from  the  committee  and  from  the 
Legislature. 

On  the  whole,  with  the  passage  of  the  laws  recom¬ 
mended  by  the  committee,  they  deem  tha  prospects  of  the 
police  force  much  brighter  in  the  future  than  their  per¬ 
formances  have  been  in  the  recent  past.  Without  entering 
into  the  merits  of  the  controversy  in  the  late  police  board, 
one  thing  was  certain,  that  harmony  did  'not  exist,  and 
that  the  board  was  divided  equally  in  opinion  upon  almost 
all  vital  topics.  The  present  police  commissioners,  four 
in  number,  are  equally  divided  in  party  politics,  but  seem 
to  be  a  unit  in  their  judgment  as  to  the  proper  government 
of  the  police  force.  The  president  is  widely  known 
throughout  the  whole  coi;ntry,  and  the  people  of  this 
communitjq  and,  indeed,  of  the  United  States,  have  a 
confidence  in  him  which  it  is  believed  he  will  thoroughly 
deserve.  If  a  proper  increase  is  made  in  the  number  of 
the  police  force,  if  laws  necessary  for  its  efficient  manage¬ 
ment  are  enacted,  the  committee  look  forward  under  the 


65 


Dew  police  commission  to  a  great  improvement  in  the 
efficiency,  the  character*,  and  the  usefulness  of  the  force, 
and  to  a  great  decrease  of  crime. 

HOUSE  OF  DETENTION. 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  the  police,  allusion 
should  be  briefly  made  to  the  House  of  Detention  for 
Witnesses,  which  is  under  the  control  of  the  Police  De¬ 
partment,  and  is  managed  by  a  Sergeant  with  one  patrol¬ 
man  and  three  doormen  under  his  command.  In  this 
place  are  detained  those  witnesses  for  the  people  in 
criminal  cases  who  are  unable  to  give  security  for  their 
appearance  at  trial.  From  the  examination  of  Sergeant 
Taft  (p,  1315,  et  sey  ),  it  will  appear  that  on  the 
day  on  which  he  was  examined  thirty-live  persons 
were  then  detained,  while  the  number  has  been  as 
high  as  fifty-seven.  One  person  had  been  kept  there 
seven  months,  Avhile  two  boys,  who  were  witnesses  in 
the  Stokes’  case,  remained  in  the  House  of  Detention 
several  years.  On  leaving,  they  may  receive  such 
small  sum  of  money,  by  way  of  compensation,  as  a 
judge  may  deem  proper  to  allow  them,  lu  one  case,  four 
girls  were  kept  four  months  as  witnesses,  while  the  pris¬ 
oner  was  on  bail  all  the  time,  and,  after  all,  they  were  dis¬ 
charged  without  any  trial  being  held. 

The  Committee  are,  emphatically,  of  opinion,  that  such 
a  state  of  things  is  a  disgrace  to  a  civilized  land,  and 
ouffht  not  to  be  tolerated  for  a  moment  loimer.  The 
remedy  for  this  abuse  is  very  fully  stated  in  the  testimony 
of  John  K.  Fellows,  Esq.,  Ex-assistant  District  Attorney, 
a  thoroughly  competent  witness  (p.  2939  et  seq.).  Let  the 


5 


66 


testimony  of  a  witness,  who  cannot  give  bail,  be  im¬ 
mediately  taken,  de  heiie  esse,  in  the  presence  of  the  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney  and  tlie  prisoner’s  counsel,  and  if,  at  the 
trial,  the  witness  cannot  be  procured,  let  bis  written  tes¬ 
timony  be  taken  instead.  It  is  Mr.  Fellows’  opinion,  tliat 
in  98  cases  out  of  100,  tlie  personal  attendance  of  the  wit¬ 
ness  would  be  easily  obtained  at  the  trial. 


CRIMINAL  COURTS. 

The  criminal  courts  in  the  city  of  New  York,  ascending 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  consist  of  the  Police  Courts, 
the  Court  of  Special  Sessions,  the  Court  of  General  Ses¬ 
sions  and  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer.  Of  these  the 
three  latter  are  exclusive!}'  trial  courts,  while  the  Police 
Courts  are  courts  of  •  commitment,  and,  in  some  cases, 
courts  of  trial  as  well. 


POLICE  COUKTS. 

The  Police  Courts  in  the  city  of  New  York  are  held  by 
eleven  police  justices,  or  magistrates,  appointed  by  the 
mayor  of  the  city  under  the  provisions  of  the  statute  of 
1873,  and  holding  office  for  terms  of  varying  duration. 
They  receive  salaries  of  $8000  per  annum  each,  and  are  dis¬ 
tributed  into  six  courts  as  follows  :  the  Tombs  Police  Court, 
two  justices;  the  West  Washington  Place,  formerly  the 
Jefferson'3  Market,  Police  Court,  two  justices;  the  Essex 
Market  Police  Court,  two  justices:  the  Yorkville  or  57th 
Street]  Police  Court,  two  justices;  the  Harlem  Police 
Court,  two  justices,  and  the  Tremont  Police  Court,  one 
justice;  the  last  tribunal  having  been  created  by  the  act 
which  provided  for  the  annexation  of  the  new  wards  for- 


67 


inerly  in  Westchester  County  to  the  city  of  New  York. 
The  statute  law  of  the  State  requires  that  prisoners  shall 
be  taken  to  the  nearest  police  court,  and,  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  the  designation  of  police  courts  to  which  the 
various  police  precincts  are  to  send  their  i)risoners  is  made 
by  the  Commissioners  of  Police.  The  ensuing  result  is 
that  the  business  of  the  courts  as  now  constituted  is  most 
unequally  divided,  both  territorially  and  with  respect  to 
business  transacted.  The  Tombs  Police  Court  has  an 
average  of  74  prisoners  a  day;  the  Washington  Place 
Court,  63  ;  the  Essex  Market,  46  ;  57th  street,  36  ;  Harlem, 
9,  and  Tremont,  2^;  while  in  the  whole  vast  portion  of 
the  city  lying  west  of  Fourth  avenue  and  north  of  Wash¬ 
ington  place  u))  to  the  extreme  northern  limit  of  the  city, 
which  is  the  southern  boundary  of  the  city  of  Yonkers, 
not  one  police  court  exists.  Although  two  justices  are  as¬ 
signed  to  each  of  the  courts  excepting  the  court  at  Tre- 
mont,  but  one  sits  at  a  time.  For  a  week  each  assio-ned 
justice  holds  court  in  his  district,  examining  prisoners, 
receiving  complaints,  issuing  warrants,  taking  bail  and  dis¬ 
charging  all  the  business  of  a  police  court.  The  succeed¬ 
ing  week  is  an  off  week  with  him,  unless  he  happen  to  sit 
three  times  during  the  week  in  the  Court  of  Special  Ses¬ 
sions,  or  unless  examinations  of  any  length  are  set  down 
before  liirn  during  that  week.  The  arrangement  seems 
bad  in  eveiy  respect,  inartistic  and  unsatisfactory,  and 
should  be  entirely  altered. 

The  present  police  justices  took  office  on  the  4th  of  No¬ 
vember,  1873,  succeeding  to  a  board  of  police  justices 
elected  under  the  old  law.  The  old  clerks  and  attendants 
remained  in  office  one  week  longer,  and,  on  the  11th  of 
November,  were  succeeded  by  the  new  appointees.  But 
one  of  the  old  police  justices  was  re-appointed,  and  none, 


08 


we  believe,  of  the  new  appointees  had  ever  held  the  posi¬ 
tion  before.  It  is  the  general  opinion  of  the  witnesses 
before  ns  that,  on  the  whole,  the  new  board  of  police 
justices  has  been  an  improvement  on  the  old,  and  the 
Committee  do  not  doubt  that  a  system  of  appointed  police 
justices  would  naturally  work  more  satisfactorily  tlian  a 
system  of  election  of  justices,  in  districts,  b}"  the  people. 
The  tenui'e  of  office,  too,  is  long,  which  is  in  itself  a  desir¬ 
able  thing.  It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that  the  new  po¬ 
lice  justices  have  left  nothing  to  be  desired  as  to  the  man¬ 
ner  in  which  they  have  discharged  the  duties  imposed 
upon  them  by  law.  One  curious  fact  may  be  collated 
from  the  testimony  of  nearly  all  of  those  wlio  were  exam¬ 
ined,  viz. :  That,  on  their  entry  into  office,  they  did  not 
make  it  their  business  to  have  made  a  thorough  examina¬ 
tion  and  codification,  for  tlieir  own  purposes,  of  tlie  laws 
governing  their  courts,  but,  apparently,  took  the  traditions 
of  tlie  old  courts  from  the  clerks  who  remained  with  them 
one  week,  and,  after  that,  they  groped  after  the  law  as- 
best  they  might.  In  consequence  of  this  neglect,  many 
plain  directions  of  the  statute  law  have  not  been  complied 
with  by  the  police  justices.  And,  at  this  point,  it  seems 
proper  to  remark  that,  while  we  suggest  some  amendments 
to  the  laws  governing  police  courts,  on  the  whole,  the 
statute  law  of  the  State  is,  in  this  respect,  remarkably 
good,  and,  in  the  judgment  of  so  experienced  a  witness  as 
Mr.  Allen,  for  many  years  Assistant  District  Attorney, 
stands  in  need  of  but  little  alteration.  What  is  required 
is,  that  the  police  justices  should  obey  the  law.  The  most 
important  of  these  omissions,  is  the  omission  to  comply 
with  the  plain  letter  of  the  statute  governing  the  examin¬ 
ation  of  prisoners.  The  provisions  of  that  statute  will  be 
found,  given  in  detail,  on  page  992  of  the  testimony,  and 


69 


it  is  there  provided  tliat,  after  the  witnesses  for 
tlie  prosecution  liave  been  examined,  the  justice  shall 
take  the  prisoner  into  a  private  room,  only  the  coun¬ 
sel  for  the  prisoner  being  present,  if  the  prisoner  so 
desire,  and  there  examine  him  touching  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  case.  The  practice  has  been 
that  when  any  prisoner  stated  either  personally  or  through 
counsel  that  he  waived  examination,  the  justice  has  merely 
taken  the  foi’inal  statement  of  his  name,  his  age,  and  the 
fact  that  he  thus  waives  examination,  and  has  then  signed 
the  papers  'and  transmitted  them  to  the  proper  tribunals. 
No  such  result  was  ever  intended  by  those  who  framed 
the  statute.  It  was  designed  that  the  prisoner  should 
have  no  right  of  waiving  examination,  although,  of  course, 
he  could  not  be  constrained  to  answer  any  question  unless 
he  felt  disposed  so  to  do ;  but  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
magistrate  to  examine  him  rigorously  as  to  the  cii’cum- 
stances  <.)f  the  case  ;  and,  beyond  all  doubt,  were  this  law 
complied  with,  a  very  great  benefit  to  the  administration 
of  justice  would  be  obtained.  An  innocent  prisoner, 
upon  being  interrogated  directly  after  his  arrest,  would 
generally  be  able,  and  ought  to  be  glad,  to  narrate  the 
circumstances  of  his  defense,  so  that  no  harm  could  ensue 
to  him  ;  while  if  a  guilty  prisoner  told  falsehoods  under 
examination,  these  might  be  subsequently  detected  ;  or,  if 
he  declined  to  answer  pertinent  questions,  his  examination, 
being  under  the  law  producible  in  evidence  at  his  trial, 
would  weigh  heavily  against  him.  The  object  apparently 
intended  by  the  law-makers  was  to  give  to  the  magisti’ate  a 
power  of  cross-examination,  so  to  speak,  something  like 
that  possessed  by  j uge  d’ instruction  in  France,  ex¬ 

cepting  that  the  prisoner  here  may  have  the  presence  of 
liis^counsel  if  he  desires.  The  excellent  effects  that  have 


70 


followed  from  this  system  in  France  are  well  known  to 
all  who  are  familiar  with  French  jurisprudence.  It  is 
hoped  b}'  the  Committee  that  now  that  the  attention  of 
the  justices  has  been  called  to  this  statute,  of  which,  or, 
at  least,  of  the  effects  of  which,  they  seem  to  have  been 
ignorant,  they  will  put  it  actively  in  force ;  and  in  this 
connection  the  language  used  by  Mr.  Allen  may  very 
properly  be  quoted ; 

“  Q.  When  the  prisoner  waives  an  examination,  does  it 
follow  that  the  magistrate  is  bound  to  waive  it? 

“A.  No,  sir;  what  that  means  is,  that  the  prisoner 
waives  his  right  to  produce  witnesses  ;  I  have  seen  hun¬ 
dreds  and  hundreds  of  cases  when  examination  has  been 
waived,  where  the  papers  have  come  down  from  the 
magistrate’s,  court  Avith  nothing  but  the  complainant’s 
statements,  without  even  the  statement  of  the  prosecuting 
witnesses,  so  that  the  District  Attorney  is  unaware  of 
what  the  witness  is  going  to  swear  to.  The  result  is  that, 
when  the  case  comes  to  the  District  Attorney’s  office,  the 
facts  of  the  prosecution  are  all  spread  before  the  defend¬ 
ant,  and  he  and  his  ingenious  counsel  have  access  to  them, 
and  tliey  have  all  the  interim  between  the  time  of  the  ex¬ 
amination  and  the  commitment,  and  the  day  of  trial,  to 
make  np  their  defence,  and  the  prosecution  is  disarmed  by 
that  process  ;  whereas,  if  the  magistrates  did  their  duty 
in  all  cases,  and  compelled  the  prisoner  to  put  himself  on 
record  then  and  there  when  brought  before  him,  the  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney  would  be  put  on  an  even  footing  with  the 
Other  side,  and  justice  would  not  fail.” 

And  later  Mr.  Allen  adds :  ‘‘The  effect  of  it  is,  I  may 
say,  that  justice  is  left  without  her  sword”  (page  1650). 
On  page  1049  Mr.  Allen  says  :  “  I  think  that  one  of  the 
principal  reasons  why  crime  in  this  city  is  not  suppressed. 


ri 


is  that  tlie  police  magistrates,  not  only  now,  but  of  late 
yearS;  either  have  been  seriously  ignorant  of  their  duties 
or  have  wilfully  neglected  them  in  several  respects.” 

Another  matter  wherein  the  plain  letter  of  the  statute 
has  been  violated  by  the  police  magistrates  is  in  that  stat¬ 
ute  which  makes  it  mandatory  by  the  magistrates  in  all 
cases  to  bind  over  the  witness  to  appearand  prosecute.  If 
this  law  were  complied  with,  it  would  have  a  great  effect 
in  putting  an  end  to  one  of  the  most  powerful  causes  of 
crime  in  this  city,  the  compounding  ot  felonies.  If  com¬ 
plainants  and  witnesses  were  put  under  their  own  recogni¬ 
zances  to  prosecute,  it  would  not  be  so  easy  for  shyster 
lawyers  to  compound  cases  by  settling  with  the  complain¬ 
ants,  and  thus  procuring  the  dropping  of  the  cases  on  the 
part  of  tlie  complainants. 

Among  the  defects  of  the  present  system,  of  law  is  that 
no  magistrate  can  take  bail  in  a  case  which  has  been  com¬ 
menced  before  another,  without  the  consent  of  the  first 
magistrate.  This,  in  many  instances,  leads  to  great  hard¬ 
ships. 

The  only  power  given  to  the  magistrates  to  punish  in¬ 
toxication,  which  constitutes  the  great  mass  of  the  cases 
brought  before  them  for  summary  disposition,  is  to  sen¬ 
tence  the  prisoner  to  a  fine  of  not  exceeding  ten  dollars, 
or,  in  lieu  thereof,  a  commitment  for  not  exceeding  ten 
days ;  and  this  is  the  case,  although  the  same  offender 
should  be  brought  up  a  dozen  times  in  a  year,  as  not  un- 
frequently  happens. 

One  of  the  great  difficulties  \\ith  which  police  justices 
have  had  to  struggle,  as  have  jdl  the  other  authorities,  in 
dealing  with  crime  in  any  of  its  phases,  lias  been  the  con¬ 
stant  interference  of  politicians  on  behalf  of  prisoners. 
Police  justices  all  testify  to  the  annoyance  growing  out  of 


72 


this  matter,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  one  which  should  be 
rectified. 

The  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Police  Justices  has 
been  completed  since  the  Committee  concluded  its  ses¬ 
sions,  and  the  statistics  therein  contained  are  of  great  in¬ 
terest  in  dealing  with  this  branch  of  the  Committee’s 
business.  The  total  number  of  cases  disposed  of  in  the 
police  courts  during  the  last  year  was  84,399,  of  which 
number  60,331  were  males  and  24,068  females.  Of  these 
54,655  were  held,  29,733  were  discharged,  and  11  cases 
were  still  pending  at  the  time  of  the  preparation  of  the 
report.  Of  those  held,  3,126  were  for  felonies,  8,053  for 
misdemeanors,  and  the  balance  for  summary  proceedings, 
such  as  intoxication,  disorderly  conduct,  vagrancj'^,  etc. 

KEMEDIES  SUGGESTED. 

The  eleven  police  justices  of  the  city  are  probably  not 
enough  to  deal  adequately  with  the  great  mass  of  crime 
in  the  city,  yet  the  number  would  be  much  more  nearly 
adequate  were  they  properly  redistributed.  If  the  Court 
of  Special  Sessions  be  made  a  special  tribunal,  as  the  Com¬ 
mittee  suggest  further  on,  and  the  eleven  magistrates  be 
distributed  to  eleven  different  courts  in  the  city,  a  great 
improvement  in  many  respects  would  ensue,  and  this  sug¬ 
gestion  meets  with  the  approval  of  many  of  the  most  ex¬ 
perienced  and  competent  justices.  The  six  present  courts 
should  probably  be  continued  with  one  justice  apiece,  and 
five  other  courts  distributed  with  reference  partly  to  the 
density  of  the  criminal  population  and  partly  to  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  territorial  jurisdiction,  so  as  to  equalize  the  labor 
among  the  eleven  courts  as  neai’ly  as  possible ;  and  the 
Committee  see  no  reason  why  these  five  additional  courts 
should  not  be  held  in  certain  designated  police  station- 


4 


73 


houses.  It  would  be  a  great  benefit  to  the  city,  in  the 
opinion  of  ex  Police  Justice  Ledwith  and  of  other  compe¬ 
tent  witnesses,  if  a  police  magistrate  could  sit  in  each 
police  station-house  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  con¬ 
venience  of  complainants,  the  welfare  of  those  arrested, 
and  the  efficiency  of  the  police  would  be  greatly  aug¬ 
mented  by  such  an  arrangement.  But  in  view  of  the 
financial  condition  of  the  cit}’,  this  is  probably  out  of  the 
question.  At  all  events  the  present  justices  should  be  dis¬ 
tributed,  as  above  indicated,  one  to  a  court,  and  the  five 
extra  ones  should  hold  their  courts  in  station-houses  se¬ 
lected  as  most  appropriate  for  that  purpose. 

One  of  the  inconveniences  of  the  present  system  is  the 
length  of  time  which  a  large  number  of  the  police  force 
have  to  consume  in  conveying  their  prisoners  to  the  police 
courts  and  in  remaining  there  till  their  cases  are  dis¬ 
posed  of,  thus  diminishing  the  effective  force  of  the  po¬ 
lice  in  the  city  of  New  York  every  day  bj  a  very  con- 
siderable  number. 

The  labor  of  a  justice  assigned  to  such  a  court  would  be 
no  more  arduous  than  at  present,  and  there  seems  to  us  no 
reason  wdiy  such  a  system  should  not  be  at  once  can-ied 
out.  If  a  justice  holding  a  particular  court  is  absent 
owing  to  sickness,  or  is  taking  a  furlough,  his  court  could  be 
lield  for  him  by  a  brother  justice,  just  as  is  now  the  rule 
in  the  civil  district  courts  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  salary  of  the  justices  is  probably  too  high,  although 
of  course,  under  the  Constitution  it  cannot  be  altered  as 
to  any  of  the  present  justices  during  their  present  terms  of 
office.  The  Committee  would  suggest  to  the  Legislature 
that  $5,000  per  annum,  the  salary  which  all  the  old  police 
justices  received,  excepting  during  about  eighteen  months, 
would  be  a  sufficient  salary,  and  would  recommend  the 


74 


passage  of  a  law  fixing  the  compensation  of  justices  to  be 
hereafter  appointed  at  that  snin. 

It  is  also  suggested  that  the  force  of  clerks  and  court 
officers  is  probably  unnecessarily  large,  and  that  opinion 
the  Committee  are  not  prepared  to  dissent  from. 

The  law  of  intoxication  should  be  so  altered,  that  any 
justice  may  commit  a  person  chai’ged  with  that  offense  a 
second  time  for  a  ranch  longer  period.  Singularly  enough, 
this  is  now  the  law  in  eveiy  portion  of  the  State  except 
the  city  of  New  York.  For  what  reason  the  city  of  New 
York  was  excepted  the  Committee  are  utterly  at  a  loss  to 
imagine.  There  is  no  place  in  the  State  where  such  a 
law  would  be  more  beneficiah  It  is  repeated  in  the  testi¬ 
mony  before  the  Committee,  with  wearisome  reiteration, 
that  people  are  brought  up  ten,  fifteen  and  twenty  times 
a  year  before  the  police  courts  for  intoxication,  and 
sent  to  the  Island  foi'  ten  days  ;  and  the  testimony  of  the 
officials  of  the  prisons  is,  that  ten  days’  confinement  in 
such  cases  is  absolutely  of  no  use  whatever.  The  mere 
physical  effect  of  the  licpior  is  not  worked  out  of  the  sys¬ 
tem  by  the  end  of  such  a  period.  Such  persons  should 
be  confined  for  six  months,  or  even  for  a  year,  should  be 
kept  away  from  all  use  of  intoxicating  driidts,  should  be 
treated  with  proper  medical  treatment,  and  should  be 
made  to  work.  The  effect  would  be  to  go  far  to  remove 
the  gnawing  taste  for  intoxicating  drinks,  which  many  of 
these  people  feel. 

Another  statute  which  should  be  passed  is  one  granting 
to  the  justices  the  right  to  take  bail  pending  examination. 
In  many  cases  these  examinations  stretch  over  weeks,  being 
adjourned  from  time  to  time,  and  tliere  is  no  authority 
under  the  law  at  present  to  take  bail  from  pilsoners. 
There  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  this  power  should 


75 


not  be  given  to  the  magistrate,  and  it  should  be  accom¬ 
panied,  of  course,  with  proper  provisions  for  the  enforce¬ 
ment  of  the  penalties  against  the  sureties. 

Tlie  hardship  growing  out  of  the  law  which  provides 
that  no  justice  can  take  bail  in  a  case  which  is  pending 
before  another  should  be  obviated.  It  is  claimed  that 
abuses  may  flow  from  tlie  existence  of  such  a  powei-,  but 
the  Committee  are  not  disposed  fo  attach  much  weight  to 
that  suggestion.  It  should  be  provided,  at  least,  that  any 
justice  who  is  sitting  in  any  one  court  may  take  bail  in  any 
case  which  has  been  commenced  in  that  court ;  a  custom 
which  has  been  introduced  in  practice  by  Judge  Bixby, 
This  amendment  would  probably  obviate  all  the  difficulties 
suggested. 

No  police  courts  are  now  held  on  Sunday  afternoon, 
and  persons  are  sometimes  improperly  arrested  after  the 
close  of  the  police  courts  on  Sunday  morning  -who  are 
locked  up  until  Monday.  It  should  be  made  obligatory 
on  the  police  justices  to  have  a  court  on  Sunday  afternoon, 
say  from  five  to  seven,  wherein  one  justice  shall  sit  to  hear 
complaints  and  admit  to  bail  for  the  whole  city.  This 
provision  would  be  sufficient  to  meet  the  difficulty  and 
would  undoubtedly  tend  to  the  welfare  of  the  community. 

The  prisons  attached  to  the  police  courts  are  now  under 
the  control  of  the  Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Cor¬ 
rection,  and  difficulties  of  jurisdiction  have  arisen  from 
time  to  time.  The  Committee  think  that  these  prisons 
should  be  under  the  control  of  tlie  police  justices,  under 
such  regulations  as  they  may  make.  They  are  not  prisons 
in  any  just  sense  of  the  word  ;  they  are  mere  places  of 
detention,  and  ought  to  be  managed  by  the  magisti'ates 
under  whose  orders  the  prisoners  are  there  detained. 

The  courts  are  now  served,  as  is  mentioned  in  the 


the  report  on  the  subject  of  the  police,  by  squads  of 
police  attached  to  each  court,  who  serve  papers,  run 
errands  and  perform  other  similar  duties  for  the 
the  police  justices.  As  is  intimated  in  that  portion  of 
report,  this  system  should  be  abolished  and  the  justices 
should  be  allowed  to  appoint  three  or  four  attendants  to 
each  court  at  small  salaries,  who  should  do  this  duty. 
These  attendants  would  be  under  the  absolute  control  of 
the  police  justices,  which  is  in  every  way  desirable,  and 
this  method  would  avoid  the  conflict  of  authority,  which 
has  already  arisen ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  a  number 
of  policemen  would  be  released  to  discharge  the  important 
duties  which  the  community  expect  of  them. 

In  excise  cases  the  police  magistrates  are  now  required 
to  accept  bail  not  to  exceed  $100,  while  in  other  cases 
■the  amount  of  bail  is  left  to  their  discretion.  The  com¬ 
mittee  see  no  reason  whatever  for  this  distinction,  and 
recommend  the  placing  of  the  amount  of  bail  in  such 
cases  on  the  same  footing  with  that  in  all  other  cases. 

One  other  subject  suggests  itself  to  the  consideration 
of  the  Committee,  and  that  is  that  the  police  justices  here 
after  to  be  appointed  should  be  lawyers  of  a  certain  dura¬ 
tion  of  practice.  Only  long  experience,  coupled  with 
eminent  ability,  as  is  the  case  with  the  oldest  serving  po¬ 
lice  justice  in  the  present  board,  can  compensate  for  the 
lack  of  legal  training  and  legal  knowledge ;  and  scattered 
throughout  the  examinations  of  some  of  the  police  justices, 
will  be  found  indications  of  ignorance  of  the  principles 
of  law.  The  popular  theory  that  common  sense  is  all  that 
is  needed  in  a  police  justice,  is  absolutely  false.  Common 
sense  is  a  pre-requisite,  but  a  knowledge  of  common  and 
statute  law  is  likewise  essential. 

One  other  suggestion  made  by  Judge  Kilbreth  (page 


77 


2314),  is  entitled  to  serious  consideration.  It  is  that  the 
District  Attorney  should  from  time  to  time  make  a  re¬ 
turn  to  the  police  justices  individually,  of  the  disposition 
of  cases  sent  him  by  them.  This  would  enable  a  police 
justice  to  give  information  when  necessary,  would  furnish 
a  record  for  the  purposes  of  the  history  of  criminal  trans¬ 
actions,  and  would  tend  largely  to  fix  the  responsibility 
for  the  failure  of  justice,  which,  unfortunately,  ensues  in 
so  many  cases. 


COURT  OF  SPECIAL  SESSIONS. 

The  Court  of  Special  Sessions  of  the  Peace,  having 
jurisdiction  over  all  misdemeanors  and  over  a  very  few 
felonies,  sucli  as  petty  larceny,  is  held  by  three  police 
justices,  who  sit  alternately  for  a  month  at  a  time.  They 
sit  thrice  a  week  for  about  three  or  four  hours,  and  dis¬ 
pose  of  an  average  of  upwards  of  thirty  cases  a  day.  No 
prosecuting  officer  appears  in  this  court,  and  in  many 
cases  the  magistrates  act  as  prosecuting  attorneys,  as 
counsel  for  the  prisoners,  as  judges  and  as  jury,  a  loading 
of  responsibility  which  ought  not  to  be  encouraged.  It  is 
manifest  that  many  grievous  errors  have,  in  one  way  and 
another,  crept  into  the  transactions  of  this  court,  and  the 
Committee  cannot  doubt  that  they  largely  flow  from  the 
utter  lack  of  time  in  which  properly  to  dispose  of  its 
business.  Many  of  the  justices  while  sitting  at  the  Court 
of  Special  Sessions  leave  their  police  courts,  some  of  them 
at  the  other  end  of  the  city,  without  any  presiding  justice, 
and  they  are  naturally  anxious  to  dispatch  the  business  of 
the  Court  of  Special  Sessions  as  rajridly  as  possible,  in 
order  to  return  and  dispose  of  the  mass  of  police  busi¬ 
ness  which  must  accumulate  during  their  absence  j 
hence  a  nervous  rapidity  in  dealing  with  crime 


78 


which  often  tends  to  injustice  to  the  prisoner,  and 
often  to  injustice  to  the  public. 

One  or  two  instances  were  brought  to  the  attention  of 
this  conunittee  in  which  certain  cases  had  been  tried  and 
disposed  of  by  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions,  although  they 
clearly  had  no  legal  jurisdiction;  and  it  became  almost 
impossible  to  fix  the  responsibility  for  this,  as  the  clerk 
of  the  Special  Sessions  stated  that  he  simply  acted  minis¬ 
terially  in  placing  the  cases  on  the  calendar,  while  the 
judges  stated  that  they  did  not  have  time  to  examine  the 
cases  and  took  their  calendar  directly  from  the  clerk.  The 
case  of  Burr,  a  policy  dealer,  is  testified  to  in  various  por¬ 
tions  of  the  testimony,  particularly  on  pages  1613  and 
1614. 

After  reviewing  the  whole  question  and  examining  it 
with  great  care,  the  Committee  is  decidedly  of  opinion 
that  it  is  not  only  advisable  but  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
suppression  of  crime  in  the  city  of  New  York,  that  an  in¬ 
dependent  court  of  Special  Sessions  should  be  created, 
consisting  of  two  justices  or  perhaps  three;  that  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  this  court  should  have  no  magisterial  duties  to 
perforin,  should  sit  every  day,  and  should  bestow  their 
entire  attention  upon  the  court  of  Special  Sessions ;  and 
that  the  District  Attorney’s  office  should  be  represented 
in  the  court  of  Special  Sessions ;  to  accomplish  which 
it  will  be  necessary  that  the  Legislature  should  authorize 
the  District  Attorney  to  appoint  another  assistant. 

One  of  the  evils  now  fiowing  from  the  present  constitu¬ 
tion  of  the  court  of  Special  Sessions  is  that  the  police 
justice  who  has  held  the  prisoner  upon  examination  may, 
and  in  fact  often  does,  sit  on  his  trial.  Some  of  the  judges 
seem  to  think  that  they  can  rise  superior  to  the  prejudice 
which  naturally  must  ensue  in  any  human  breast  under 


79 


such  circumstances,  but  the  judgment  of  the  law-making 
power  of  this  State  on  such  a  subject  has  already  been 
expressed  in  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which 
provides  that  no  judge  of  a  higher  court  shall  sit  in  review 
of  his  own  decisions,  and  likewise  in  the  universal  practice 
of  criminal  courts,  that  any  member  of  a  grand  jury  which 
found  an  indictment  is  disqualified  from  sitting  on  a  petit 
jury  trial  of  that  indictment. 

If  this  court  thus  sitting  every  day  be  constituted, 
another  great  reform  can  be  introduced  which  the  Com¬ 
mittee  hope  and  believe  would  largely  tend  to  the  diminu¬ 
tion  of  crime  in  the  city  of  New  York.  In  the  past,  for 
quite  a  number  of  \'ears,  large  numbers  of  criminals  who, 
upon  being  arrested,  have  given  bail  and  demanded  a  jury 
trial,  which  they  cau  only  obtain  at  the  Court  of  General 
Sessions  or  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer,  have,  from 
the  great  pressure  of  business  on  those  courts,  absolutely 
gone  unwhipped  of  justice  ;  and  this  has  been  peculiarly 
the  .case  with  the  gamblers,  ])olicy  dealers,  keepers  of  dis- 
ordeily  houses  and  those  guilty  of  similar  offences.  Un¬ 
der  the  Constitution,  they  cannot  be  deprived  of  their  right 
of  ti-ial  by  juiy,  and  under  the  Constitution  practically 
construed  they  are  entitled  to  bail.  The  Court  of  Special 
Sessions  as  reconstituted  should  have  the  power  to  summon 
a  jury  and  to  try  all  misdemeanors  wherein  a  jury  trial  is 
demanded  as  well  as  all  other  misdemeanors,  with  the  pos¬ 
sible  exception  of  offences  growing  out  of  the  conduct  of 
public  officials.  Some  of  these  cases  which  rise  to  the 
dignity  of  state  trials  are,  as  is  well  known,  only  misde¬ 
meanors  under  the  law,  but  doubtless  they  should  be  tried 
by  the  highest  courts,  of  the  State  ;  but,  putting  these  aside, 
there  seems  no  reason  why  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions, 
if  clothed  with  the  power  of  summoning  a  jury,  should  not 


so 


try  all  misdemeanors.  The  effect,  in  the  first  place,  will 
be  celerity  of  punislnnent,  whicli  is  almost  as  important  as 
pnnishmeut  itself  towards  the  suppression  of  crime.  Place 
before  a  criminal  the  certainty  that  he  will  be  speedily 
tried  and  he  will  be  much  less  ready  to  risk  the  chances  of 
the  trial  than  when  he  has  the  law’s  delay  and  the  long 
chapter  of  accidents  in  his  favor.  On  this  point  the  com¬ 
mittee  make  the  most  earnest  representations  to  the  Legis¬ 
lature.  The  expense  of  such  a  tribunal  would  be  but  a 
trifle  in  addition  to  the  present  expense,  especially  in  view 
of  the  suggestion  of  the  diminution  of  the  salaries  of  the 
police  justices  as  their  present  terms  expire,  and  we  are 
satisfied  that  there  is  not  in  the  whole  subject  of  criminal 
jurisprudence  in  the  city  of  New  York,  a  more  vitally  im¬ 
portant  topic  than  this  one.  If  the  Legislature  will  create 
a  permanent  Court  of  Special  Sessions,  whose  judges  have 
no  distracting  duties  and  who  are  burdened  with  no  dis¬ 
tracting  influences,  which  shall  sit  every  day  and  all  day, 
which  shall  have  the  assistance  of  the  District  Attorney’s 
office,  and  which  shall  have  the  power  to  try  all  misde¬ 
meanors,  whether  with  or  without  a  jury,  we  believe  that 
great  good  will  ensue  to  the  city  of  New  York.  This  sug¬ 
gestion  is  found  most  earnestly  urged  in  the  testimony  of 
several  of  thp  ex-police  justices  of  long  experience,  and  in 
that  of  several  of  the  present  justices,  and  is  peculiarly 
pressed  in  the  views  expressed  by  the  wisest  and  most  ex¬ 
perienced  of  the  present  j  ustices,  the  only  one  who  has 
been  long  upon  the  bench.  His  opinions,  in  view  of  his 
experience  and  of  his  unquestioned  ability  and  character, 
are  entitled  to  great  consideration  at  the  hands  both  of  the 
Committee  and  the  Legislature  (see  page  2649). 

The  laws  concerning  gambling  and  policy  dealing 
should  be  remodeled.  As  at  present  constituted,  having 


81 


been  passed  at  different  periods,  and  with  different  ends 
in  view,  they  leave  dangerons  loop-holes  open  through 
which  a  doubt  can  creep  as  to  whether  the  offence  be  a 
misdemeanor  or  a  felony.  Whichever  the  Legislature 
may  deem  it  proper  to  make  the  offence,  should  be  speci¬ 
ally  set  forth,  and  should  be  one  and  the  same  for  all  the 
branches  of  the  offence.  As  it  now  is,  tlie  keeping  of  a 
policy  shop  is  a  misdemeanor,  and  the  selling  of  a  policy 
is  a  felony,  a  distinction  where  there  is  no  difference. 
Probably  all  the  offences  against  these  laws  should  be 
made  felonies,  and  should  be  so  punishable. 


FINES. 

The  subject  of  fines  is  an  important  one,  both  with 
reference  to  the  duties  of  the  police  magistrates  and  to 
those  of  the  Courts  of  Special  Sessions.  Numbers  of 
convicts  are  sentenced  to  imprisonment  and  to  fine  in  ad¬ 
dition,  and  the  great  majority  of  these  are  unable  to  pay 
the  fine.  Some  of  them  languish  for  a  considerable  time  in 
jail ;  some  are  almost  immediately  discharged  after  the 
expiration  of  their  term  of  imprisonment,  and  in  the  case 
of  some,  application  seems  to  be  made  for  their  discharge 
even  before  the  expiration  of  their  term.  The  statistics  in 
reference  to  this  subject,  in  so  far  as  prisoners  sent  to  the 
penitentiary  are  concerned,  may  be  found  on  pages 
2017,  etc. 

A  custom  not  by  any  means  universally  observed  seems 
to  have  sprung  up  of  regarding  the  additional  fine  of  one 
dollar  as  capable  of  being  mulcted  by  an  additional  im¬ 
prisonment  of  one  day  ;  that  is  to  say,  if  a  prisoner  is  sent 
to  the  penitentiary  for  two  months  and  sentenced  to  pay 
fifty  dollars  fine  he  shall  remain  in  tlie  penitentiary  fifty 
days  after  the  expiration  of  the  two  months,  and  then  his 


6 


H2 


fine  may  be  remitted.  The  Committee  see  no  good  reason 
why  this  custom  should  not  he  established  as  law  and  why 
the  dangerous  uncertainty  an  1  vacillation  of  the  present 
system  should  not  thereby  be  brought  to  an  end.  They 
therefore  would  recommend  this  suggestion  to  the  favora¬ 
ble  consideration  of  the  Legislature. 

One  further  suggestion  inade  by  one  of  the  experienced 
judges  is,  that  the  civil  district  court  and  the  police  court 
in  the  new  wards  should  be  consolidated  into  one  tribunal, 
as  neither  of  them  has  much  to  do.  This  system,  which 
would  make  a  court  somewhat  like  that  of  a  justice  of  the 
peace  in  the  country,  would  seem  to  meet  the  exigencies  of 
the  case  and  is  recommended  to  the  Legislature. 

COUET  OF  GENERAL  SESSIONS. 

The  Court  of  General  Sessions  has  for  many  years  been 
held  by  the  Recorder  and  the  City  Judge.  Since  the  1st  of 
January,  1876,  an  additional  justice,  known  as  the  Judge 
of  the  Court  of  General  Sessions,  has  been  added.  It  has 
only  been  customary  in  the  past  to  hold  one  monthly  term 
of  this  court.  The  Committee  are  not  at  all  satisfied  that 
it  was  not  perfectly  practicable  to  hold  two  terms  monthly 
during  many  of  the  months  at  least,  and  are  of  opinion 
most  decidedl}'  that  a  great  many  of  the  cases  which  have 
not  been  tried,  owing  to  a  lack  of  court  facilities,  might 
have  been  disposed  of  had  the  permissive  power  of  the 
statute  authorizing  the  court  on  the  application  of  the  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney  to  order  two  terms  been  availed  of.  How¬ 
ever  that  may  be,  the  law  now  specifies  that  two  monthly 
terms  shall  be  held  every  month,  and  it  is  the  earnest  hope 
of  the  Committee  that  this  provision  may  tend  to  clean  out 
the  criminal  calendars. 

We  believe  that  its  present  place  of  session,  in  the  old 


S3 


Court-liouse  in  the  City  Hall  Fark,  is  not  a  desirable  one, 
and  that  it  should  sit  in  the  more  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
Tombs,  so  as  to  avoid  the  un[)leasant  spectacle  of  hand¬ 
cuffed  prisoners  being  marched  up  and  down  from  the 
Tombs  to  the  court. 

At  least  one  of  the  judges  of  this  court  has  exercised  what 
is  called  the  power  of  suspending  sentence— that  is,  after 
a  person  is  convicted  even  of  a  felony,  not  sentencing  him, 
hut  letting  him  go,  and  holding  the  sentence  in  terrorem 
over  his  head  for  an  indefinite  time.  There  is  not,  so  far 
as  we  have  been  able  to  learn,  the  faintest  warrant  in  law 
for  this  proceeding.  It  seems  to  be  an  infringement  upon 
tlie  pardoning  power  of  the  Executive,  and  in  every  re¬ 
spect  an  injustice  which  ought  to  cease.  The  Committee 
recommend  the  passage  of  an  act  forbidding  any  judge, 
presiding  over  a  criminal  court,  to  defer  or  suspend  sen¬ 
tence  of  a  convicted  prisoner  for  a  longer  period  than  the 
close  of  the  term  at  which  such  prisoner  shall  have  been 
convicted. 


THE  COURT  OF  OYER  AND  TERMINER, 

the  highest  criminal  court  in  the  city,  is  held  four  or  five 
times  a  year  by  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Ko  sug¬ 
gestions  as  to  its  management  seem  to  be  essential. 


CORONERS. 

There  are  four  coroners  in  the  city  of  New  York,  who 
receive  compensation  by  fees,  and  who  spend  substantially 
their  entire  time  in  the  duties  of  their  office.  After  ex¬ 
amining  pretty  thoroughly  into  their  proceedings,  the  Com¬ 
mittee  find  nothing  very  striking  to  report  to  the  Legisla- 


84 


ture  concerning  the  manner  in  which  their  duties  are  per¬ 
formed.  They  in  general  seem  to  perform  their  duties 
well,  and  the  results  of  their  labors  are,  on  the  whole,  sat¬ 
isfactory.  They  have  all  been  guilty  of  an  utter  violation 
of  law  in  issuing  warrants  for  the  arrest  of  persons  before 
any  verdict  of  the  jury  is  rendered.  This  is  a  manifest 
violation  of  the  plain  letter  of  the  statute,  and  no  warrant 
for  it  is  found  in  tlie  common  law,  as  one  of  the  coroners 
seemed  to  think  before  the  Committee. 

The  most  important  suggestion  which  we  can  make  in 
reference  to  this  office  is,  that  the  coroners  should  be  sal¬ 
aried  officials.  There  seems  no  special  I'eason  why  they 
should  be  paid  by  fees  any  more  than  police  justices, 
whose  dirties  theirs  somewhat  resemble,  and  while  they 
should  undoubtedly  be  well-paid  officers,  it  is  probable 
that  they  are  rather  overpaid  now.  The  fact  that  they 
ai’e  paid  by  fees,  too,  has  led  to  collisions  between  them 
and  the  financial  officer  of  the  county,  and  to  a  series  of 
law  suits  which  appear  to  have  merely  entailed  costs  and 
other  expenses  upon  the  city. 

The  Committee  would  suggest  to  the  Legislature  that 
after  the  expiration  of  the  terms  of  the  present  coroners, 
the  fee  system  shall  be  abolished,  and  that  each  coroner 
shall  i-eceive  a  salary  of  say  $8,000  per  annum. 

The  power  they  have  to  summon  physicians  should  con¬ 
tinue  as  it  now  exists,  and  these  may  very  properly  be 
compensated  by  fees,  as  is  at  present  the  law. 

It  may  be  a  question  worth  taking  into  consideration 
whether  any  particular  advantage  accrues  from  keeping 
up  the  system  of  coroners  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
Committee  have  not  been  able  to  learn  that  any  great 
good  is  derived  from  their  continuance  in  office,  which 
might  not  be  obtained  through  other  sources  just  as  well. 


8;') 


The  power  of  permitting  the  burial  of  ])ersons,  and  the 
duty  of  inspecting  tlie  deceased  wlien  any  suspicious  cir¬ 
cumstances  exist,  might  be  relegated  to  the  Board  of 
Health,  while  the  examinations  into  such  cases,  now  held 
by  coroners,  might,  possibly,  be  conducted  before  the 
police  justices.  This  suggestion,  however,  has. not  been 
elaborated,  and  is  merely  thrown  out  for  the  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  Legislature. 


DISTRICT  ATTORNEY. 

This  is  by  far  one  cf  the  most  important  offices  in  the 
City  of  New  York  for  the  suppression  of  crime,  and  it  is 
to  the  District  Attorney  that  the  people  must  look,  more 
than  to  any  other  officer  connected  with  the  criminal  ad¬ 
ministration  of  justice,  for  the  suppression  of  crime. 

The  Committee  entered  upon  the  examination  of  the 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  that  office,  not  oidy  with 
V  the  hope,  but  the  expectation,  that  here  would  be 
founJ  ability,  honesty,  and  a  faithful  discharge  of  duty. 
With  a  large  salary  which  is  attached  to  the  office,  and  the 
honorable  position  which  it  gives  an  incumbent,  the  best 
talent  in  the  legal  profession,  and  men  of  the  highest  in- 
tegrity  and  social  position  are  glad  to  accept  and  fulfill 
the  duties  of  the  office.  With  the  salary  attached  to  the 
position  of  the  assistants  in  the  office,  lawyers  of  moie 
than  ordinary  ability  are  glad  to  obtain  it. 

Even  the  position  of  Chief  Clerk  in  the  office  is  one 
which  a  man  of  legal  ability,  honesty,  and  culture  would 
not  refuse  to  accept.  Immense  power  attaches  to  the 
office  of  District  Attorney,  which  can  be  wielded  for  good 
or  evil,  and  under  the  laws  as  they  at  present  exist,  crime 


86 


in  tlie  City  of  New  \  ork  can  be  greatly  diminished  if  the 
incumbent  of  that  office  has  but  a  single  eye  to  the  public 
good. 

There  is  no  offense  which  has  come  under  the  coffui- 
zance  of  this  Committee,  in  any  of  the  departments  which 
they  have  examined,  which  cannot  be  acted  upon  in  the 
first  instance,  either  directl}"  or  indirectly,  by  the  District 
Attorney.  With  his  power  in  connection  with  the  Grand 
Jury,  it  would  be  difficult,  did  he  exert  it,  for  captains 
of  police  b;  confederate  with  thieves  or  disorderly  persons, 
or  for  magistrates  to  neglect  or  disregard  their  plained  uties. 

The  Committee  regret  to  say  that  they  have  found  that 
the  office  of  the  District  Attorney  has  been,  for  a  nurabei- 
of  years  past,  negligently  and  inefficiently  administered. 
Case  after  case  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Com¬ 
mittee,  vonclied  for  by  individuals,  and  supported  and 
confirmed  by  the  recoi’ds  of  the  court,  whicli  could  leave 
no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  Committee  as  to  the  truth 
of  this  statement. 

The  cases  of  Mrs.  Eoddy,  page  1228  to  1267,  and  1273 
to  1278  ;  the  McCarthy  homicide,  at  page  654  to  665  ;  the 
Levi  Ahrens’  case,  at  page  523  to  650,  635  to  647,  816  to 
819;  the  Eliza  Collins’  outrage,  at  page  1723  to  1745, 
aptly  illustrate,  and  the  case  mentioned  by  Mr.  Comstock, 
the  Agent  of  the  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice,  on 
page - . 

While  the  Committee  make  no  charge  of  dishonesty  of 
purpose  against  the  District  Attorney,  they  regret  that  he 
refused  to  appear  and  make  explanations  in  regard  to 
matters,  which  upon  their  face  exhibited  inefficiency  or 
neglect,  and  suggest  new  remedies  which  might  be  the 
means  of  preventing  them  in  the  future. 

In  the  judgment  of  the  Committee,  some  of  the  assist- 


87 


ants  are  persons  of  oi’dinarj  merit  and  legal  abilit}',  and 
to  them,  holding  no  official  responsibilit}*,  seems  to  have 
been  intrusted,  to  a  very  great  extent,  the  rnnning  of  the 
office.  Prisoners  seem  to  have  been  indicted  and  dis¬ 
charged  without  the  knowledge  of  the  District  Attorney  ; 
bail  taken  a})parently  without  his  consent;  and  prisoners 
taken  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  inferior  magistrates 
without  his  suggestion  by  an  Assistant  District  Attorney, 
and  even  by  a  clerk  in  his  office;  and  these  persons  dis¬ 
charged  without  any  apparent  reason  or  cause. 

Without  his  knowledge  it  would  appear  that  more  than 
one  hundred  indictments  were  found  in  one  day  through 
an  assistant  against  lottery  dealers — (testimony  of  Mr. 
Allen,  at  page  1662). 

Without  his  knowledge  an  attempt  was  made  to  indict 
one  of  the  most  respectable  and  reputable  citizens  of  this 
city— see  testimony,  page  1686 — against  whom  there 
was  no  cause  for  complaint,  but  evidently  intended  for 
the  purpose  of  saving  from  indictment  two  persons  against 
whom  there  was  good  cause.  • 

Hundreds  of  indictments  against  lottery  dealers, 
keepers  of  houses  of  prostitution,  and  other  disorderly 
persons,  have  been  found,  and  only  the  very  smallest  per¬ 
centage  of  them  has  been  tried. 

The  most  successful  forgeries  e\er  known  have  been 
committed  ;  many  of  the  criminals  were  arrested  at  great 
expense,  and  most  of  them  were  discharged.  One  of 
these  men,  Eoymond,  was  extradited  from  Europe  and 
detained  for  a  few  months  in  the  Tombs,  and  was  then 
removed,  under  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ad  testificundum 
to  Elmira,  since  which  departure  he  has  never  been  heard 
of  by  the  authorities  in  Hew  York,  nor  has  any  report 
concerning  him  ever  been  sent  from  Elmira.  Many  of 


88 


those  who  were  known  to  have  been  associated  with  Tweed 
in  his  extensive .  depredations  have  been  arrested,  and 
hut  few  of  them  have  been  tried  and  punished. 

A2:ainst  Tweed  himself  twentj'-two  indictments  for 
felony  and  seven  indictments  for  misdemeanor  have  been 
found,  and  but  one  indictment  for  misdemeanor  against 
him  has  been  tried  ;  and  now,  through  the  gross  negligence 
of  some  one,  as  yet  unpunished,  this  man  is  now’  at  large. 

In  his  testimony  before  the  Committee,  Mr.  Peckham, 
wdio  has  been  one  of  the  most  active  attorneys  associated 
with  .the  District  Attorney,  testifies,  at  page  1810:  “I 
have  nodoul)t  we  were  ready  to  try  those  men,”  meaning 
Tweed  and  his  associates,  “  at  any  time  after  the  matter 
was  firet  investigated ;  there  has  never  been  a  time  that 
we  were  not  ready  to  try  them  after  the  bills  were  found.” 
And  again  he  says,  at  page  1813:  “If  I  had  had  entire 
charge  of  them,  they  would  all  have  been  tried  ;  but  then 
I  say  that,  supposing  I  should  have  had  no  other  duties 
that  would  have  provanted  my  doing  it.” 

In  the  face  of  the  facts  as  they  exist,  and  of  this  testi¬ 
mony  unexplained  by  the  District  Attorney,  the  Commit¬ 
tee  can  have  no  doubt  that  he  has  been  negligent  in  his 
duty.  Many  other  instances  showing  negligence  on  the 
part  of  this  officer,  or  his  assistants,  appear  in  the  testimony 
])roduced  before  the  Committee. 

It  seems  to  the  Committee,  from  the  few  cases  presented 
of  persons  who  h9.ve  been  bailed,  that  if  a  person  can  manage 
to  procure  bail,  he  could  safely  feel  that  he  was  released 
from  further  prosecution.  The  excuse  given  for  the  want 
of  prosecution  in  such  cases,  is  that  sufficient  facilities  did 
not  exist  to  enable  the  District  Attorney  to  perform  this 
portion  of  his  duty,  and  yet  it  has  been  made  apparent, 
that  by  the  consent  of  the  courts,  on  the  application  of  the 


I 


89 

District  Attorney,  two  terms  of  the  Court  of  General  Ses¬ 
sions  might  have  been  held  each  month,  while,  in  fact, 
with  the  exception  of  four  or  five  months,  only  one  court 
was  in  session. 

It  is  to  be  hoped,  that  with  three  judges,  now  author¬ 
ized  to  hold  the  Court  of  General  Sessions,  and  with  di¬ 
rections  to  hold  two  terms  each  month,  and  the  fresh  fa¬ 
cilities  given  to  the  District  A.ttorney  by  the  appointment 
of  an  additional  assistant,  no  such  excuse  can  again  be 
offei'ed.  Should  the  Legislature  conclude  to  adopt  the  sug¬ 
gestion  heretofore  made  in  this  report,  of  authorizing  the 
appointment  of  additional  judges,  to  sit  permanently,  to 
hold  special  sessions,  with  power  to  empanel  juries;  the 
District  Attorney’s  office  will  be  relieved  of  a  large  num¬ 
ber  of  petty  cases,  and  the  Committee  believe  he  will  be 
fully  able  to  dispose  of  all  other  cases  with  alacrity  and 
certainty. 

KKMEDIKS  SUGGESTED. 

There  are  but  few  remedies  which  the  Committee  are 
called  upon  to  suggest,  but  some  of  these  they  deem  very 
important.  The  assistant  district  attorneys  and  the 
chief  clerk,  also,  if  intrusted  with  the  powers  which 
tlie  chief  clerk  in  the  office  of  the  District  Attorney  of  this 
city  seems  to  be  intrusted  with,  should  be  sworn  officers, 
and  the  Committee  therefore  recommend  the  enactment 
of  a  law  compelling  them  to  take  and  subscribe,  before  a 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  an  oath  of  office.  At 
present,  the  grossest  dereliction  of  duty  can  only  be  pun¬ 
ished  by  removal  from  office. 

The  Committee  recommend  that  the  Legislature  ])ro- 
vide,  that  all  bonds  given  for  bail,  in  criminal  cases,  shall 
be  made  a  lien  \ipon  the  property  described  in  the  bond. 


4 


1>0 


from  the  time  it  is  filed  with  the  Clerk  of  the  Court  of 
Oyer  and  Terminer  and  Geneo'al  Sessions,  and  that  such 
bond  be  filed  forthwith  with  such  clerk,  and  in  cases  of 
bail  taken  before  committing  magistrates,  such  bond  shall 
be  forthwith  filed  with  the  same  clerk. 

This,  the  Committee  belie\e,  will  be  the  means  of  pre- 
Yenting,  to  a  great  extent,  the  giving  of  bogus  or  “  straw  ” 
bail,  which  has  been  so  common.  At  present,  it  is  no  un¬ 
common  thing  for  a  person  to  become  bail,  and  then 
transfer  his  property,  and,  when  the  bail  is  forf(dted, 
there  is  no  property  upon  which  to  levy. 

It  has  come  to  the  attention  of  the  Committee,  that  at 
times  a  deposit  of  money  has  been  accepted  in  the  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney’s  office  in  lieu  of  bail.  The  Committee  be¬ 
lieve  that  there  is  no  law  authorizing  any  such  practice, 
and  yet  they  feel  satisfied  that  cases  might  occur  in  which 
provision  authorizing  such  a  deposit  in  lieu  of  bail  would 
be  just  and  proper.  They  therefore  suggest  the  enact¬ 
ment  of  a  law  that  no  money  shall  be  received  by  the 
District  Attorney  in  lieu  of  a  bail  bond,  except  upon  an 
order  of  the  court  to  that  effect,  specifying  the  amount  to  be 
received.  All  moneys  so  received  should  be  forthwith  de¬ 
posited  in  a  bank  or  trust  company  to  be  designated  by 
the  court,  to  the  credit  of  the  court  in  which  such  money 
or  deposit  shall  be  received,  and  to  be  withdrawn  only 
upon  the  order  of  one  of  the  judges  of  the  court,  payable 
either  to  the  City  Chamberlain  or  the  bondsman,  or  his 
representative,  as  the  case  may  require. 

A  large  amount  of  forfeited  recognizances  upon  which 
judgments  have  been  entered  remain  uncollected.  Under 
the  law  as  it  at  present  exists,  it  is  believed  that  the  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney  is  not  compelled  to  take  action  for  the  collec¬ 
tion  of  such  judgments  except  by  order  of  the  court. 


91 


and  it  has  been  ir.tiniated  to  the  Committee  that' obstruc¬ 
tions  to  such  collections  exist  from  the  refusal  of  the 
Sheriff  to  levy  and  sell  without  security  being  furnished 
to  him. 

The  Committee,  therefoi'e,  recommend  the  enactment 
of  a  law  to  the  effect  that  notice  be  immediately  given,  by 
the  clerk  of  the  coui't  in  which  a  bail  bond  or  recog¬ 
nizance  is  presented,  to  the  Corporation  Attorney  in  the 
City  of  NeW  York,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  prosecute 
such  further  and  necessary  proceedings  upon  it  as  shall  be 
required,  and  that  no  security  shall  hereafter  be  demanded 
by  the  Sheriff  before  he  levies  and  sells. 

It  was  formerly  the  practice  to  renew  a  bail  bond  after 
an  indictment  was  found,  but  that  wise  custom  seems  to 
have  fallen  into  disuse.  Under  the  old  practice,  the  bail 
given  before  a  committing  magistrate  came  up  for  review 
before  the  District  Attorney,  and  thus  a  person  who 
managed  to  escape  detection  in  giving  bogus  bail  before 
the  magistrtrate,  found  himself  checked  by  the  examina¬ 
tion  of  the  District  Attorney. 

The  Committee,  therefore,  suggest  the  enactment  of  a 
law  requiring  the  renewal  of  bail  bonds  after  indictment. 

Testimony  was  given  before  the  Committee  showing,  in 
some  instances,  that  the  amount  of  bail  had  been  fixed, 
and  bail  taken  in  the  office  of  the  District  Attorney  with¬ 
out  it  appearing  in  the  minutes  of  the  court  that  any  order 
had  been  made  by  the  court  authorizing  such  proceeding. 

The  Committee  believe  that  there  is  no  law  authorizin<r 
such  action  ;  but,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  such  a  pro¬ 
ceeding  in  the  future,  they  recommend  the  passage  of  a 
law  that  in  no  case  shall  the  amount  of  bail  be  fixed  or 
reduced,  or  bail  be  taken,  except  by  order  of  the  court, 
which  shall  appear  in  the  minutes  thereof. 


It  is  apparent  to  the  Committee  tliat  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  and  perhaps  in  other  places,  the  rich  criminal  has  a 
decided  advantage  over  the  poor  criminal.  In  one  matter, 
particularly,  gr.  ss  injustice  seems  to  be  practised  upon  poor 
people  charged  with  crime.  Foiunerly  it  was  the  practice, 
when  a  prisoner  was  brought  to  the  bar  to  plead  to  an  iti- 
dictment,  that  the  clerk  or  court  would  ask  him  if  he  had 
counsel  or  the  means  of  obtaining  counsel,  and  in  case  he 
was  unable  to  procure  counsel,  the  court  then  and  there 
assigned  him  counsel,  and  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  pre¬ 
pare  for  his  trial.  Now  it  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for 
such  a  person  to  be  called  upon  to  plead,  and  to  be  put 
immediately  upon  his  trial,  with  counsel  just  assigned  to 
him.  The  injustice  of  such  practice  is  too  apparent  to 
need  comment,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Committee,  a 
law  should  be  enacted  providing  that  in  all  cases  where 
prisoners  are  brought  to  the  bar  to  plead  to  indictments, 
they  shall  first  be  asked  by  the  clerk  if  they  have  counsel, 
or  if  they  have  the  means  to  procure  counsel,  and  if  they 
say  that  they  have  no  means  to  procure  counsel,  the  court 
shall  assign  counsel  before  tliey  are  required  to  plead  to 
the  indictment,  and  in  no  case  shall  any  person  be  put 
upon  trial  until  at  least  three  da3's  shall  have  expired  after 
counsel  shall  have  been  assigned,  or  after  he  has  pleaded 
to  the  indictment. 

The  Committee  are  aware  that  such  a  law  would  im¬ 
pose  onerous  and  unrequited  duties  upon  counsel,  but 
they  can  see  no  other  method  of  remedying  the  evil 
which  exists,  unless  the  Legislature  should  enact  a  law, 
which  the  Committee  approve  of,  authorizing  the  appoint¬ 
ment  of  a  public  defender,  whose  duties  should  be  to 
appear  for  all  such  persons,  and  who  should  receive 
reasonalfic  compensation  for  his  services. 


In  the  opinion  of  the  Committee,  a  law  should  he 
passed  defining  the  power  of  the  District  Attorney,  to 
permit  or  refuse  parties  to  appear  before  Grand  Juries 
with  their  complaints.  At  present,  even  an  Assistant  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney  seems  to  have  power  to  present  to  the 
Grand  Jury  any  person  whom  he  chooses,  and  as  hereto¬ 
fore  stated,  one  Assistant  District  Attorney  presented 
before  the  Grand  Jury  over  one  hundred  persons  charged 
with  the  violation  of  lottery  laws,  while  it  has  been  at 
times  difficult  for  citizens  having  complaints  to  obtain 
admittance  before  the  Grand  Jury. 

It  is  clear  to  the  Committee,  that  the  Grand  Jury  have 
been  at  times,  and  can  be  used  as  an  engine  of  grave  in¬ 
justice  to  the  citizen,  and  that  indictments  have  been 
found  mainly  upon  the  papers  setting  forth  the  testimony 
taken  befoi'e  the  committing  magistrate. 

The  Committee,  therefore,  i-ecommend  the  enactment 
of  a  law,  that  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  a  Grand  Jury  to 
find  an  Indictment  except  upon  the  testimony  of  witnesses 
sworn  before  them,  and  that  the  evidence  taken  before  a 
committing  magistrate  shall  be  used  by  them  only,  if  at 
all,  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  and  aiding  the  examina¬ 
tion  of  witnesses  who  are  presented  before  them. 

And  the  Committee  further  recommend  that  power 
should  be  given  to  any  Judge  or  Justice  of  any  Court  of 
Decord,  having  criminal  jurisdiction,  if  in  his  discretion  it 
shall  seem  wise  and  just,  on  a  proper  application  to  him, 
to  direct  the  District  Attorney  to  present  such  case  before 
the  Grand  Jury,  and  in  no  other  instance  should  the 
Grand  Jury  be  permitted  to  find  indictments  against  indi¬ 
viduals  until  the  person  accused  of  the  offense  shall  have 
had  an  opportunity  of  presenting  his  defense,  if  he  have 
any,  befoi-e  a  committing  magistrate. 


94 


In  the  opinion  of  yonr  Committee,  the  law  (cliap.  1,  title 
7,  of  part  4,  sec.  2H,  vol.  2,  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  page 
725,  Edmoni’s  Edition),  entitled  ‘‘General  provisions  con¬ 
cerning  crimes  and  their  punishment,”  is  sufficiently  plain 
in  denying  the  right  of  the  court  to  consent  to  the  accept¬ 
ance  of  a  plea  of  an  attempt  to  commit  a  crime  by  a  pris¬ 
oner,  when  it  appears  that  he  has  committed  the  crime 
itself  for  which  he  has  been  indicted.  Yet,  the  acceptance 
of  such  pleas  is  of  daily  occurrence,  and,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Committee,  tends  greatly  to  weaken  the  apprehen¬ 
sion  the  prisoner  should  feel,  that  he  must  suffer  for  his 
offense  as  prescribed  l)y  law.  The  effoi't  to  sustain  the 
practice  hy  the  assertion  which  was  made  before  the  Com¬ 
mittee  that  the  words  of  the  statute,  “  when  it  shall 
appear,”  were  intended  to  mean  when  it  shall  appear  “  by 
the  plea,”  is  too  absurd  for  argument.  Should  a  person 
chai’ged  with  the  commission  of  the  crime  of  burglary 
seek  to  have  himself  discharged  before  a  Supreme  Court 
Judge  at  chambers  by  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  upon  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  guilty  of  the  offense  for  which  he 
was  committed,  the  District  Attorney  who  opposed  his 
discharge  would,  without  doubt,  then  inform  the  court 
“that  it  appeared”  Jy  tAe  committing  papers  that  he  was 
properly  held.  \¥hy  should  the  committing  papers  and  the 
minutes  taken  before  the  Grand  Jury  be  less  conclusive 
before  the  Judge  before  whom  he  is  brought  to  trial,  than 
before  the  Judge  at  Chambers?  But  to  avoid  further 
repetition  of  such  practice,  the  Committee  recommend 
that  the  section  referred  to  be  amended  by  inserting  after 
the  words  “  when  it  shall  appear,”  the  woi-ds  by  the  testi¬ 
mony  taken  before  the  committing  magistrate  or  by  the 
testimony  taken  before  the  Grand  Jury. 

In  many  cases  which  were  presented  before  the  Com- 


95 


mittee,  and  in  which  the  pi'opriety  of  the  action  of  the 
court  and  District  Attorney  was  brought  in  question, 
the  Committee  were  unable  to  discover  among  the  papers 
in  the  clerk’s  office  connected  with  the  cases  the  grounds 
upon  which  such  action  was  taken,  and  we]'e  obliged  to 
resort  to  the  testimony  of  counsel  wlio  had  been  eiriployed 
in  the  cases  and  the  Assistant  District  Attorney,  given  from 
memory,  as  to  what  was  the  inducing  cause;  and  it  ap¬ 
peared  that  prisoners  were  discharged  by  the  couid,  simply 
upon  hearsay  evidence  suggested  by  the  counsel  foi*  the 
prisoner — no  sworn  testimony  being  requested  from  any 
one. 

The  Committee  feel  that  such  practice  is  susceptible 
of  grave  abuse,  and  they  therefore  recommend  the  passage 
of  a  law  (in  conformity  with  the  practice  in  civil  courts 
generally),  that  all  applications  to  the  court  for  relief  to  a 
prisoner  charged  with  crime  shall  be  in  writing  and  sworn 
to,  and  that  such  affidavit  shall  be  filed  with  the  clerk  of 
the  court,  and  become  a  |  lart  of  the  record  of  the  case. 

Many  instances  were  shown  where  prisoners  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  a  prison  or  penitentiary  never  reached 
their  destination. 

To  arrest  this  evil,  the  Committee  recommend  the  en¬ 
actment  of  a  law  compelling  the  wardens  of  the  various 
prisons,  penitentiaries,  and  reformatories,  to  report,  each 
month,  the  names  of  the  persons  who  have  been  received 
by  them,  and  the  date  when  so  received,  to  the  clerks  of 
the  various  courts  in  which  they  were  sentenced. 


EXCISE  BOAllD. 


The  Couiinittee  approach  the  subject  of  excise  with 
great  diffidence.  All  witnesses,  upon  whose  judgment  the 
Committee  placed  reliance,  have  testified  that  more  tlian 
seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  crime  in  New  York  can  be 
traced  dii-ectly  or  indirectly  to  the  use  of  intoxicating 
liquor.  That  entire  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  this  com¬ 
modity  would  tend  greatly  to  decrease  crime  there  can  be 
no  difference  of  opinion  ;  but  such  an  act,  tlie  Committee 
feel  confident,  could  not  be  passed,  and,  if  passed,  it  would 
be  next  to  impossible  to  enforce.  In  those  States  where 
the  experiment  has  been  tried,  it  is  believed  that  no  great 
diminution  of  the  sale  has  been  effected,  and  the  result 
has  been  to  induce  deceit  and  law-breaking  among  the 
people.  Acts  prohibiting  engaging  in  any  branch  of  bus¬ 
iness  are  looked  upon  with  disfavor,  as  encroachments 
upon  the  rights  of  the  citizen.  But  there  is  no  doubt  in 
the  minds  of  the  Committee  that,  at  present,  the  laws  regu¬ 
lating  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  are  too  lax,  and  too 
loosely  administered.  The  Committee  regai’d  the  Excise 
Commission  as  an  expensive  and  useless  appendage  to  the 
city  government.  The  present  Commissioners  have  openly 
evaded  the  laws,  and  have  taken  upon  themselves  responsi¬ 
bilities  in  permitting  persons  to  sell  liquors  without  license, 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  plain  wording  of  the  statute. 
Their  inspectors,  as  a  class,  seem  of  no  earthly  use,  except 
to  draw  salaries,  and  while  to  them  has  generally  been 
entrusted  the  duty  of  reporting  upon  the  character  of  ap¬ 
plicants  for  licenses,  the  performance  of  that  duty  has 
been  so  negligently  and  loosely  conducted  as  to  render  it 
a  question  in  the  minds  of  the  Committee  whether  their 
real  business  has  not  been  to  procure  as  many  improper 


97 


persons  to  procure  licenses  as  possible.  In  direct  opposi¬ 
tion  to  the  statute  governing  this  branch  of  tlie  city  gov¬ 
ernment,  the  Commissioners  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
receiving  small  sums  of  money  from  applicants  for  licen¬ 
ses,  and  often  for  months  thereafter,  and  sometimes 
during  the  whole  year  permitting  them  to  sell  liquor 
without  license.  It  would  not  be  reasonable  to  expect 
that  a  person  who  is  able  to  sell  liquor  for  one-half  the 
amount  which  it  would  cost  him  to  take  out  his  license, 
should  go  after  his  license  and  pay  the  balance  due  from  him. 
There  is  now,  accoi'ding  to  the  testimony  of  one  of  the 
Excise  Commissioners,  a  sum  exceeding  twelve  thousand 
dollars,  which  was  received  from  persons  who  made  ap¬ 
plications  for  licenses,  paid  a  portion  of  the  license  fee  on 
account,  and  who  have  not  since  called  for  or  received 
licenses,  and  it  is  now  stated  by  the  Commissioners  that 
they  cannot  find  the  parties  who  have  thus  paid,  so  as  to 
return  the  amounts.  This  sum,  it  is  said,  the  Clamberlain 
of  the  city  refuses  to  receive,  because  it  does  not  result 
from  issuing  licenses,  and  the  Commissioners  acknowl¬ 
edge  that  they  are  now  at  a  loss  what  disposition  to  make 
of  it. 

It  is  apparent  that  if  the  Hoard  of  Excise  should  fall 
into  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  men,  such  a  practice 
would  result  in  the  grossest  frauds. 

The  payment  by  the  present  Board  of  Excise  Commis¬ 
sioners  to  the  City  Chamberlain  of  more  than  four  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  dollars,  as  proceeds  derived  from  the  issu¬ 
ing  of  licenses  during  the  past  year,  while  it  exhibits  great 
activity  in  that  branch  of  the  business,  exhibits  also,  laud¬ 
able  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Commissioners,  which  will 
be  the  means  of  affording  great  aid  to  the  poor  during  the 
present  winter. 


98 


Many  persons  have  been  examined  before  the  Commit¬ 
tee,  who  liave  expressed  opinions  as  to  the  best  means  to 
be  adopted  towards  better  regulating  the  sale  of  intoxi¬ 
cating  liquors.  Persons  who  appear  to  be  worth}'’  of 
equal  credit  disagree  upon  the  question  whether  the  license 
fee  should  be  high  or  low.  All  agree  that  no  person 
should  be  allowed  to  sell  liquors  without  a  license,  and 
that  the  sale  of  liquors  of  all  descriptions  should  be  pro¬ 
hibited  in  drug  stores.  Gentlemen  of  high  reputation  as 
chemists,  state,  as  their  opinion,  tliat  it  is  a  mistaken  idea 
to  trace  the  increase  of  crime  to  any  adulteration  of 
liquors  ;  that  the  compounds  are  not  deleterious ;  and  that 
it  is  the  alcohol  itself  which  is  the  great  enemy  of  man. 
It  is  the  sale  of  newly-distilled  liquor,  as  testified  to,  that 
produces  the  crazing  effects  which  have  generally  been 
attributed  to  adulteration  ;  and  hence,  no  whiskey  partic¬ 
ularly  should  be  sold  until  at  least  two  years  after  distil¬ 
lation  . 

A  most  imporaut  consideration  in  the  granting  of  licen¬ 
ses,  as  the  Committee  believe,  is,  that  the  party  licensed 
should  be  a  person  of  good  moral  character.  This  consid¬ 
eration  seems  to  have  been  partly  ignored  by  the  present 
Commissioners  of  Excise.  A  large  number  of  the  Police 
Captains  were  examined,  and  testified  that  the  Inspectors 
of  Excise  never  inquired  of  them  as  to  the  character  of 
persons  in  their  various  precincts  who  applied  for  licenses, 
and  that  testimony  is  confirmed  by  the  Inspectors.  To 
make  this  more  apparent,  tlie  Committee  called  for  a 
report  from  the  Superintendent  of  Police  (and  were  fur¬ 
nished  therewith),  of  a  list  of  all  places  in  the  City  of 
New  York  in  which  liquor  was  sold,  and  which  by  the 
Police  were  reported  to  be  houses  of  disorderly  character 
and  the  resort  of  thieves.  This  report  showed  numerous 


99 


cases  where  tlie  Excise  Commissioners  had  granted 
licenses  for  the  sale  of  liqfiors  to  the  proprietors  of  such 
places  as  being  persons  of  good  moral  character. 

The  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  being  so  generally  con¬ 
ceded  to  be  the  cause  of  so  much  crime,  it  is  the  unani¬ 
mous  opinion  of  the  Committee  that  the  traffic  in  it  should 
be  placed  under  the  supervision  of  the  police.  As  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  economy,  also,  the  Committee  urge  it  upon  the 
Legislature,  and  respectfully  submit  the  following  sug¬ 
gestions  : 

1.  The  abolition  of  the  Excise  Board. 

2.  Placing  the  supervision  in  the  Board  of  Police,  with 

power  to  appoint  an  additional  Inspector  of  Police, 
with  necessary  assistants  to  issue  and  grant  licenses. 
The  captains  in  each  precinct,  with  the  force 
under  them,  would  tliereby  be  always  acting  as 
inspectors,  and  their  I’eport  should  be  the  criterion 
or  evidence  of  the  good  character  of  an  applicant 
for  a  license. 

3.  Three  grades  of  license  fees  should  be  established, 

one  for  the  sale  of  malt  liquors,  one  for  the  sale  of 
wines  and  malt  liquors,  and  one  for  the  sale  of 
liquors  generally.  The  amount  of  fees  for  each 
grade  should  be  fixed  by  the  Board  of  Police. 

4.  All  persons  licensed  should,  as  is  customary  in  Eng¬ 

land,  be  compelled  to  exhibit  a  sign  on  the  front  of 
their  i-espective  places  of  business,  stating  that  they 
are  licensed,  and  what  liquors  they  are  licensed  to 
sell. 


100 


5.  Any  ])ersoii  selling  malt  or  spirituous  liquors  with¬ 

out  a  license  should  be  subject  to  a  fine  or  punish¬ 
ment  l)j  imprisonment  in  the  Penitentiaiy,  for  the 
first  offense,  for  not  less  than  thirty'  da3"s,  and  for  a 
second  and  further  offense,  not  less  than  three 
months,  nor  more  than  one  j^ear. 

6.  An}"  licensed  person  selling  any  other  kind  of  liquor 

than  that  which  he  has  been  licensed  to  sell,  should 
be  subject  to  the  same  ]>unishment  as  persons  sell¬ 
ing  without  a  license. 

7.  Iletail  grocers  desiring  to  sell  spirituous  or  malt 

liquors  should  be  requii-ed  to  pay  the  highest  grade 
of  license  fee. 

8.  Upon  any  complaint  against  a  person  for  selling 

liquor  without  a  license,  proof  that  the  person  com¬ 
plained  of  had  liquor  exposed  upon  his  premises, 
shall  be  prima  facie  evidence  against  him,  and 
upon  such  proof  any  magistrate  shall  issue  his  warrant 
for  the  arrest  of  the  person  so  chai'ged,  and  cause 
the  liquor  so  exposed  to  be  seized  and  brought  be¬ 
fore  him  to  be  held  as  evidence. 

The  law",_as  it  at  present  exists,  is  utterly  useless  for 
the  purpose  of  preventing  the  sale  of  liquors  by  un¬ 
licensed  parties.  The  police  complain  that  when  arrests 
are  made  by  them  of  persons  for  selling  liquors  without  a 
bcense,  the  persons  arrested  are  seldom  held,  and,  if  they 
are  held,  the  bail  is  in  such  small  amount  that  they  care 
nothing  for  it,  and  they  return  immediately  to  their  un¬ 
lawful  business.  The  magistrates  complain  that  the 
police  fail  to  furnish  to  them  sufficient  evidence,  and  that,. 


iOl 


therefore,  the\'  have  no  authority,  and  are  powerless  to 
impose  or  inflict  adecpiate  punishment. 

Both  parties  are  correct.  It  is  the  law  itself  which 
is  to  blame.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  policeman  can¬ 
not  furnish  such  proof  as  is  required  by  law.  lie  sees  a 
man,  in  a  public  place,  drinking  something  at  a  bar, 
which  he  believes  to  be  licpior ;  perhaps  he  knows 
that  the  proprietor  has  not  a  license  to  sell  liquor.  The 
policeman  is  not  permitted  to  leave  his  post  to  enter  the 
public  bar-room,  and  he  cannot  swear  that  liquor  was  sold. 
Even  in  cases  where  the  proof  is  clear,  the  magistrate  has 
power  only  to  hold  the  party  to  bail  for  trial,  and  expe- 
I’ience  has  taught  those  who  thus  defy  the  law,  that  they 
need  not  fear  prosecution  thereafter. 

To  suppress  the  ofPense  of  selling  liquor  'yithout  a  li¬ 
cense  is  an  easy  matter  ;  all  that  is  required  is  to  treat  it 
as  other  offenses  are  treated,  and  to  prevent  politics  from 
intei'fering  with  the  subject. 


PRISONS  AND  REFORMATORIES. 

In  the  course  of  the  examination  conducted  by  the  Com¬ 
mittee  into  the  causes  of  crime  and  the  treatment  of  crimi¬ 
nals,  they  have  deemed  an  important  portion  of  their  labor 
to  be  a  complete  examination  of  all  the  places  of  confine¬ 
ment  of  criminals  from  the  city  of  New  York,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  State  prisons,  which,  although  they 
receive  many  prisoners  from  the  city  of  New  York,  did 
not  seem  to  the  Committee  to  be  legitimately  within  the 
scope  of  their  inquiry.  Excluding  the  State  prisons,  there 
remained  the  following  institutions  under  the  custody  of 


102 


the"  Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Correction  :  five 
prisons  attached  to  the  police  courts  of  tlie  city  of  New 
York;  the  Tombs,  or  City  Prison;  the  Penitentiary  on 
Blackwell’s  Island  ;  the  Work-honseon  Blackwell’s  Island  ; 
the  School-Ship  Mercnry  and  Hart’s  Island.  Besides 
these,  there  are  the  Ilonse  of  Refuge,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Protectory  and  the  Juvenile  Asylum,  all  managed  by  pri¬ 
vate  corporation’s,  yet  all  receiving  sentenced  criminals 
from  the  city. 


POLICE  COURT  PRISONS. 

Each  of  the  Police  Courts,  except  the  one  located  at  the 
Tombs,  has  a  small  prison  attached  to  it  in  which  are  kept 
prisoners  a'syaiting  actioii  on  the  part  of  the  Police  Justices. 
Some  conflict  of  jurisdiction  between  the  Commissioners 
of  Charities  and  Correction  and  the  Police  Justices  has 
occasionally  arisen,  and  while  the  Committee  would  recom¬ 
mend  that  the  prisons  should  remain  under  the  custody  of 
the  Commissioners  of  Chailties  and  Correction,  they 
would  suggest  that  the  prisoners  shall  be  kept  in  the  prisons 
and  sent  away  therefrom  onl}^  upon  the  order  of  the 
Police  Justices,  and  should  be  at  all  times  produced  upon 
the  order  of  the  Police  Justices.  The  prison  attached  to 
the  Jeflerson  Market  building,  nowin  process  of  construc¬ 
tion,  will  be  a  very  large  and  greatly  improved  one,  very 
much  larger  in  all  probability  than  will  be  required  for 
the  puqiose  of  the  Police  Court  to  be  held  in  that  build¬ 
ing,  and  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion  of  the  Police 
Justices,  it  is  recommended  that  prisoners  may  be  detained 
there  in  the  same  manner  and  under  similar  circumstances 
with  those  now  detained  in  the  Tombs. 


103 


CITY  PRISON,  OK  TOMBS. 

The  City  Pi-isoii,  or  Tombs,  was  erected  about  forty 
years  ago.  It  is  situated  on  the  block  bounded  by 
Centre,  Elm,  Franklin  and  Leonard  streets.  The 
building  contains  the  Comt  of  Special  Sessions,  and 
the  First  District  Police  Court,  the  necessary  clerks’ 
offices,  a  male  prison,  a  female  prison,  a  boys’  ju’ison, 
and  a  structure  known  as  “Bummers  IJall,”  in  which 
the  five  and  ten  day  prisoners  are  confined.  Taken 
as  a  whole,  and  with  reference  to  all  its  present  con¬ 
veniences,  the  building  is,  in  the  emphatic  words  of 
Justice  Bixby,  “  A  shame  and  a  disgrace  to  the  jieople 
of  the  city  of  New  York  ”  (page  2659).  It  was  built 
upon  the  site  of  the  old  Collect  Pond.  It  was  con¬ 
structed  in  days  when  the  theory  of  a  prison  seemed  to 
,be  that  it  should  be  as  much  a  place  of  torture  as  possible, 
and  when  modern  enlightenment  had  not  reached  the  con¬ 
struction  and  management  of  prisons.  It  is  grossly  in¬ 
adequate  for  the  number  of  inmates,  and  it  has  been 
utterly  mismanaged  for  years  past.  Probably  no  reforma¬ 
tion  in  the  pi’csent  structure  can  ever  reach  the  root  of  its 
evils.  A  new  city  prison  should  be  erected  as  soon,  at 
least,  as  the  city  can  afford  the  expense.  Fpon  the  dav^  when 
the  Committee  visited  it,  it  had  within  its  walls  505  prisoners 
of  all  classes  ;  233  of  these  were  in  the  male  prison,  a  dismal 
and  gloomy  structure  of  oblong  shape,  with  four  tiei’S  of 
cells,  the  rows  of  cells  being  separated  by  a  narrow  pas¬ 
sageway,  from  the  end  of  which  all  the  light  that  the 
prison  receives  is  admitted.  Some  of  the  lower  tier  of 
cells  are  always  damj),  and  all  of  the  cells  are  unquestion¬ 
ably  uId^ealth3^  It  should  be  observed  that  most  of  the 
prisoners  confined  in  the  Tombs  are  not  convicts,  and  are 


104 


merely  persons  awaiting  trial,  either  such  as  through  pov¬ 
erty  are  unable  to  give  bail,  or  such  as  to  whom,  from 
the  gravity  of  the  alleged  offense,  bail  has  been  refused. 
When  it  is  considered  that  the  law  presumes  all  these 
prisoners  to  be  innocent,  and  that  they  are  merely  retained 
there  for  the  purpose  of  detention  while  awaiting  trial,  it 
would  certainly  seem  that  they  should  be  treated  witli  a 
kindness  and  consideration  not  necessarily  to  be  shown  to 
convicts.  The  exact  reverse,  however,  is  the  fact,  and 
there  is  no  prisoner  in  the  Tombs,  unless  he  be  one  who, 
by  the  payment  of  money  or  through  other  influence, 
obtains  special  advantages,  who  might  not  well  envy  the 
condition  of  a  convict  at  Blackwell’s  Island.  They  are 
herded  together,  three  or  four  to  a  cell,  the  clean  and 
respectable  prisoner  with  the  filthy  inebriate,  the  innocent 
youth  with  the  hardened  criminal,  without  any  pretense 
whatever  of  discrimination,  except  such  as  is  obtainec^ 
through  bribery  or  corruption.  One  startling  fact  struck 
the  Committee,  that  the  division  into  cells  is  not  made  by 
the  executive  head  of  the  prison,  but  by  the  nearly  irre¬ 
sponsible  keepers,  who  preside  over  the  different  tiers ; 
and  the  Committee,  upon  their  first  session  upon  this  topic, 
emphatically  expressed  their  opinion  that  this  division 
should  be  made  upon  the  entrance  of  a  prisoner  by  the 
Warden  in  the  main  office ;  but  they  have  yet  to  learn 
that  their  suggestion  met  with  any  consideration  whatever. 
The  fact  being  that  the  prisoners  are  distributed  into  cells 
according  to  the  will  of  the  keepers,  the  necessary  conse¬ 
quence  follows,  that  the  keepers  accept  bribes  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  placing  prisoners  in  more  comfortable  cells.  (See  the 
testimony  of  Mrs.  Millett,  page  1176  ;  Sacia,  page  1185  ; 
Walsh,  page  1202,  et  seq.)  And  especially  that  of  Jacobi, 
who  being  free  at  the  time  he  was  examined  before  the 


105 


Committee,  testified  without  fear  of  petty  tyranny  (see 
page  1324,  et  seq.)  Tlie  story  that  Jacobi  gives  of  the 
abuses  and  injury  to  which  he  was  subjected  by  reason  of 
his  not  paying  the  exhorbitant  bribe  demanded  is  a  sick¬ 
ening  one  and  deserves  to  be  read  in  detail.  He  testifies 
that  at  the  time  that  four  prisoners  were  confined  in  a  cell 
when  he  at  last  obtained  the  liberty  of  working  about  the 
prison,  he  saw  eight  empty  cells  in  desirable  localities, 
kept  doubtless  in  the  hope  of  extorting  money  from  the 
prisoners  for  their  use.  Amongst  the  many  other  abuses 
of  this  scandalous  place  it  appears  that  no  bath  is  ever 
given  to  prisoners ;  that  sheets  are  changed  about  eN  ery 
six  or  seven  weeks ;  that  the  prisoners’  clothes  are  never 
washed  except  upon  their  paying  for  the  services ;  that 
the  food  is  served  out  to  them  in  tin  platters  like  dogs,  with¬ 
out  knives  or  forks  or  spoons  and  that  all  of  these  conveni¬ 
ences  may  be  obtained  by  paying  blackmail  therefore.  And 
while  these  necessaries  were  denied  the  prisoners,  it  will  ap¬ 
pear  from  the  testimony  of  theComnrissioners,  of  theWarden 
and  of  O’Brien,  the  steward  of  the  Tombs  (page  1210),  that 
a  supply  of  these  articles  were  kept  in  the  prison,  and  was 
supposed  by  the  Commissioners  at  least  to  be  used  for  the 
benefit  of  the  prisoners.  While  these  abuses  are  carried 
on  by  snbbordinates,  it  is  by  no  means  possible  to  excuse 
the  neglect  to  rectify  them  either  on  the  part  of  the  AVar- 
den  or  on  the  part  of  the  Commissioners  of  Charities  and 
Correction.  In  particular  the  attention  of  the  Committee 
was  again  and  again  attracted  by  the  evidence  of  unim¬ 
peached  witnesses,  to  gross  instances  of  extortion  on  the 
part  of  one  of  the  keepers  named  Duffy,  and  yet,  though 
the  Commissioners  of  Chailties  and  Correction  were  re¬ 
peatedly  notified  of  these  facts,  the  man  Duffy  continued 
to  be  a  keeper  of  the  prison  up  to  about  the  time  when 


106 


the  Committee  ceased  its  labor,  according  to  the  testimony 
of  Commissioner  Cox.  The  Committee  learn  that  he  has 
since  been  discharged.  By  the  testimony  of  Mrs.  Millett, 
of  Sacia  and  Jacobi,  it  appears  that  a  man  who  was 
previously  in  the  prison,  named  Raymond  (one  of  the 
bond  forgers,  the  curious  history  of  whose  escape  is  given 
in  that  portion  of  the  report  whiph  refers  to  the  District 
Attorney’s  office),  was  the  financial  go-between  who  trans¬ 
acted  the  bribery  business  on  behalf  of  the  keepers.  He 
had  apparently  the  full  liberty  of  the  prison  at  all  times, 
and  was  the  instrument  through  whom  money  was  ex¬ 
torted. 

The  male  prisoners  are  locked  up  in  their  cells  all  day 
and  all  night,  saving  that  for  half  an  hour  in  the  morning 
they  are  allowed  to  walk  up  and  down  the  gloomy  corri¬ 
dors  in  front  of  their  cells.  Spacious  yards  exist  within 
the  prison  walls,  and  by  a  little  management  and  a  little 
care,  there  seems  no  reason  why  these  pi'esumably  inno¬ 
cent  men  should  not  be  allowed  to  breathe  a  little  fresh  air 
daily.  In  another  portion  of  the  building  there  are 
several  rooms  of  considerable  size  which  are  put  appa¬ 
rently  to  no  use  whatever  except  when  tliey  serve  as 
the  reception  parlors  of  certain  favored  criminals  as 
mentioned  in  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Tousey  (page  2851). 
Mr.  Sinclair  Tousey,  whose  testimony  is  here  alluded  to,  is 
the  President  of  the  Prison  Association,  an  organization  of 
benevolent  gentlemen  who  have  for  years  devoted  them¬ 
selves  to  the  task  of  ameliorating  the  c.ondition  of  our 
prisoners,  both  during  and  after  confinement.  Mr. 
Tousey’s  testimony,  both  upon  the  subject  of  prisons  and 
upon  other  topics  to  which  allusion  is  elsewhere  made,  is 
•of  deep  interest,  and  deserves  to  be  carefully  studied. 
While  a  philantrophist  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word. 


/ 


107 


lie  is  a  thorough]}'  practical  man,  and  all  his  views  seem 
to  be  based,  not  merely  in  cliarity,  but  in  common  sense 
as  well. 

Another  abuse  about  which  not  much  testimony  has  been 
taken,  but  concerning  which  there  are  some  sparks  of  evi¬ 
dence,  and  as  to  the  fact  of  which  no  man  who  knows  the 
Tombs  entertains  any  doubt  wliatever,  is  that  certain  crimi¬ 
nal  lawyers  are  allowed  access  at  all  times  to  the  prisoners, 
and  every  means  is  taken  to  compel  tlie  prisoners  to  use 
their  services.  (See  testimony  of  Sacia,  page  1189,  and 
the  testimony  of  Judge  Berr}*,  page  1343).  This  latter 
gentleman,  a  reputable  lawyer,  but  not  one  of  tlie  Tombs 
ring  apparently,  called  at  the  Tombs  to  see  his  client, 
Sacia,  jiresented  his  professional  card  at  the  gate  and  was 
refused  admittance  by  the  Warden  in  pei'son,  in  a  most 
offensive  and  insulting  manner.  From  the  testimony  of 
Jacobi  it  will  appear  that  a  notorious  criminal  schyster, 
whose  career  is  a  scandal  to  the  city,  is  at  all  times  allowed 
free  access  to  the  inner  prison  itself. 

The  testimony  of  Mrs.  Millett,  at  jiage  1172,  et  seq., 
deserves  ))eculiar  consideration.  She  is  a  benevolent  wo¬ 
man,  the  wife  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman  in  this  city,  who 
for  thirty-five  years  ])ast  has  almost  daily  visited  the  })enal 
institutions,  and  particularly  the  Tombs,  on  errands  of 
charity  :  and  the  strong  manner  in  which  she  condemns 
the  management  of  the  Tombs,  is  of  itself  the  weightiest 
possible  testimony  against  it. 

It  is  but  fair  to  say  that  some  of  the  abuses  here  referred 
to  occurred  under  previous  Commissioners. 

The  women’s  prison  consists  of  several  tiers  of  cells,  all 
of  which  are  open  during  the  day,  so  that  the  iTimates 
wander  to  and  fro  at  ])leasure.  This  must  necessarily 
lead  to  muih  evil  being  done  by  the  intercourse  of  young 


108 


people  with  hardened  criminals,  and  yet,  with  tlie  present 
miserable  accommodations,  it  seems  an  evil  difficult  to  he 
remedied. 

There  seems  to  the  Committee  no  reason  why  any  con¬ 
vict  should  be  kept  in  the  Tombs  except  those  awaiting 
the  execution  of  sentence ;  but  a  number  of  persons  sen¬ 
tenced  to  five  and  ten  days  imprisonment  are  retained 
there,  dawdling  away  their  time  in  each  others’  company. 
These  prisoners  should  all  be  sent  to  the  work-house,  and 
should  be  made  to  work. 

The  health  of  the  prison  is  unquestionably  bad,  although 
a  vigorous  attempt  is  made  by  the  physician  and  by  some 
of  the  Commissioners  to  vindicate  it  by  a  fallacious  system 
of  statistics. 

611  page  1199,  the  physician  stated  that  they  had  had 
in  a  year  31,000  prisoners  and  only  16  deaths,  of  which 
three  were  suicides.  But  the  trouble  with  these  figures 
is,  that  most  of  these  31,000  prisoners  were  detained  in 
the  Tombs  but  a  very  short  time ;  that  many  of  them 
when  taken  side  were  sent  to  the  liospital  and  died  there, 
(see  page  1200) ;  and  tliat  probably  many  others  carried 
with  them  to  their  homes  the  seeds  of  fatal  disease. 

As  to  the  subject  of  remedies,  there  is  but  one  remedy 
that  will  ever  be  effectual,  and  that  is  to  destroy  tlie  old 
pest-hole  and  build  a  decent  prison  npon  modern  scien¬ 
tific  principles.  If  this  is  not  to  be  done,  the  present 
building  should  at  least  be  enlarged,  ventilated,  given 
light  and  in  every  way  improved,  as  suggested  by  Mr. 
Tousey  (page  2851). 

The  prisonei’s  should  be  distributed  into  their  cells  upon 
their  arrival  by  the  Warden  ;  the  Commissioners  should 
themselves  see  to  it  that  they  are  supplied  with  the 
necessaries  of  life  ;  they  should  be  allowed  air  and  exer- 


109 


^  cise ;  they  should  be  protected  from  extortion,  and  no 
favors  should  be  shown  to  individual  prisoners  on  account 
nf  wealth  or  influence  of  any  kind.  And  in  accordance 
with  tlie  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Tousey,  the  vacant  rooms 
which  now  serve  as  the  parlors  of  the  wealthy  prisoners, 
should  be  turned  into  prison  cells  and  all  the  waste  space 
about  the  building  utilized  for  the  general  good. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  suggestion  made  above,  that  some 
portion  of  the  new  Jefferson  Market  prison,  when  com¬ 
plete,  should  be  used  for  the  same  class  of  })risoners  as 
those  now  confined  in  the  Tombs,  should  be  carried  out, 
and  the  officials  of  the  jirison  should  be  made  to  under¬ 
stand  that  they  are  there,  not  to  tyrannize  and  to  plunder, 
but  to  deal  with  all  the  kindness  consistent  with  safety, 
with  the  unfortunate  beings  under  their  charge — such  an 
idea  as  is  expressed  by  the  Warden  of  the  pi-ison,  on  page 
llGl,  “  Don’t  you  think  on  the  (piestion  of  morals,  that 
something  should  be  done  in  regard  to  that  ?  A.  Well. 

I  have  not  much  idea  of  reforming  people  after  they  get 
into  prison,”  should  be  laid  aside  forever. 

In  short,  the  persons  who  are  selected  for  wardens  and 
keepers  to  manage  this  and  similar  institutions,  should  not 
be  cJiosen  because  they  happen  to  be  backed  by  a  certain 
quantity  of  ward  politicians,  but  because  they  have  some 
qualification  in  character,  in  training,  and  in  capacity, 
which  would  fit  them  properly  to  discharge  the  duties  that 
are  confided  to  them.  Here,  as  in  every  other  branch  of 
the  Committee’s  investigation,  the  miserable  effect  of 
appointments  through  political  influence  are  but  too  ' 
apparent. 


no 


MANNER  OF  CONVEYING  THE  PRISONERS. 

Prisoners  are  now  conveyed  to  and  fro  between  the 
Tombs  and  the  Courts  of  General  Sessions  and  Oyer  and 
Terminer,  which  are  located  about  one-third  of  a  mile 
away,  in  the  cnstod}-  of  certain  utterly  irresponsible  peo¬ 
ple,  who  are  merely  the  attendants  of  these  courts,  ap¬ 
pointed  by  the  judges.  JN’o  higher  authority  is  responsible 
for  their  acts,  and  a  necessary  consecpience  is,  that  escapes 
are  effected  in  broad  daylight,  and  that  petty  extortions 
are,  from  time  to  time,  perpetrated.  The  Commissioners 
of  Charities  and  Correction  should  be  charged  with  the 
duty  of  conveying  prisoners  backwards  and  forwards  to 
the  courts,  and  with  the  custody  of  the  prisoners  while  in 
the  courts,  and  should  be  empowered  to  appoint  a  suffi¬ 
cient  number  of  guards  for  that  purpose,  and  the  Commis¬ 
sioners  should  be  then  held  themselves  res])onsible  for  the 
safe  keeping  and  proper  treatment  of  the  prisoners.  It  is 
a  fact  stated  in  testimony  before  the  Committee,  that  pris¬ 
oners  have  actually  been  taken  from  the  Tombs  to  the 
court  and  back  again  under  the  custody  of  a  boy  from  the 
District  Attorney’s  office.  This  is  an  abuse  which  should 
immediately  be  rectified. 

PENITENTIARY. 

The  Penitentiary  of  the  county  of  iMew  York  is  situated 
on  Blackwell’s  Island,  and  contained,  on  the  30th  of  Sep¬ 
tember,  1^75,  933  inmates.  Of  these  158  were  women. 

» Yery  elaborate  accounts  are  given  in  the  testimony  of 
Warden  Fox  of  the  Penitentiary,  and  of  some  of  his 
subordinates,  of  the  whole  rcuitine  and  management  of 
the  prison,  from  the  reception  to  the  discharge  of  the 
prisoners,  to  which  we  need  not  here  refer  more  at  length, 


Ill 


•  as  oil  the  whole  the  system  seems  to  be  good,  and  the 
management  comparatively  unexceptionable. 

Tlie  great  abuse  in  tlie  prison  to  whicli  oiir  special  at¬ 
tention  was  directed  was  the  absolute  failure  to  separate 
prisoners  in  accordance  with'  their  age  and  characters. 
The  youth  and  the  old  criminal  were  joined  close  together, 
and  the  idea  of  making  a  distinction  seems  first  to  have 
presented  itself  to  the  prison  authorities  after  the  exami¬ 
nation  made  by  the  Committee.  We  are  informed  that 
since  our  visit  to  Blackwell’s  Island  the  Commissioners  of 
Charities  and  Correction  have  ordered  a  classification  of 
the  prisonei's  to  be  made. 

The  present  penitentiary  building  is  inadecpiate  for  the 
number  of  inmates.  It  consists  of  three  wings,  one  of 
which  was  intended  to  be  reserved  for  women,  but  owing 
to  the  great  increase  of  the  number  of  male  inmates,  and 
to  the  much  greater  danger  of  escape  on  the  part  of  these 
latter,  this  wing  has  also  been  given  up  to  the  use  of  the 
men  ;  and  the  158  women,  young  and  old,  innocent  and 
wicked,  sleep  together  in  one  large  room,  which  was  in¬ 
tended  to  be  the  chapel  of  the  institution,  on  little  cols 
placed  as  close  together  as  possible.  No  more  hopeful 
means  of  turning  the  innocent  youth  into  hardened 
criminals  could  possibly  be  devised.  A  new  prison  should 
be  erected,  for  the  present  one  is  not  only  inadequate  in 
size  but  has  not  been  constructed  in  accordance  with  the 
improvements  introduced  by  modern  science  ;  and  if 
this  work  must  be  done  slowly  on  account  of 
the  financial  difticulties  in  the  way,  it  should 
at  least  be  inaugurated  by  the  immediate  con¬ 
struction  of  a  female  prison,  upon  a  plan  which  should 
make  it  eventually  a  portion  of  a  new  complete  structure. 
One  great  improvement  has  been  eft'ected  by  the  present 


112 


Commissioners,  the  providing  of  work  for  the  inmates  of 
the  Penitentiary.  Hampered  as  the}'^  have  been  by  the 
utterly  preposterous  law  which  prevented  them  from  dis¬ 
posing  of  any  of  the  results  of  the  labor  of  the  prisoners, 
or  from  contracting  that  labor,  they  have,  nevertheless, 
managed  to  introduce  new  arts  from  time  to  time,  until, 
at  length,  most  of  the  necessaries  of  the  prison  are  made 
in  the  prison  by  the  prisoners,  and  many  other  utensils 
which  are  employed  by  the  Commissionei-s  of  Charities 
and  Correction  in  their  other  departments  are  now  manu¬ 
factured  there.  As,  for  instance,  the  Committee  saw  a 
fine  new  prison  van,  on  the  occasion  of  their  visit  to  Black¬ 
well’s  Island,  entirel^^  constructed,  painted,  and  in  every 
respect  finished  within  the  prison  walls  ;  and  this  brings  us 
to  the  most  important  recommendation  that  we  have  to 
make  to  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  in  reference  to  the 
government  of  convicts  in  the  city  of  New  York.  As  has 
been  above  stated,  the  Commissioners  are  not  now  allowed 
to  contract  prison  labor  or  to  sell  material  constructed  in 
the  prison,  and  a  great  part  of  the  work  that  is  provided 
for  the  prisoners  is  hence  mere  idle  waste  of  time,  such  as. 
breaking  stone  and  building  sea  wall,  which  is  of  little  or 
no  practical  use.  This  law  appears  to  have  been  passed 
upon  the  theory  that  to  allow  the  contracting  or  sale  of 
prison  labor,  would  be  to  interfere  with  the  fruits  of 
honest  labor  in  the  city.  No  more  utterly  absurd,  un¬ 
reasonable,  or  illogical  law  was  ever  passed.  When 
prisoners  are  kept  in  idleness,  or  when  the  labor  that  they 
perform  is  of  the  utterly'  unproductive  character  alluded 
to,  the  charge  of  their  keeping,  their  custody  and 
their  maintenance,  falls  upon  the  taxpayers  of  tlie 
city,  and  the  taxes  of  the  city  are  paid,  not  by'  the 
wealthy  alone,  but  by  every  honest  laboring  man  who,  in 


113 


the  increased  price  which  he  gives  for  rent,  for  fuel,  for 
food,  and  for  clothing,  contributes  his  share  to  the  cost  of 
maintaining  a  hei’d  of  idle  vagabonds  in  the  prisons.  If, 
on  the  contraiw,  the  Commissioners  are  allowed  to  con¬ 
tract  the  prison  labor,  or  to  sell  its  results,  the  prison, 
nndei'  proper  management,  may  well  become  self  sustain¬ 
ing  ;  the  burden  of  its  charge  may  be  lifted  from  the  tax- 
paj’ei’s  of  the  city,  and  each  laboring  man  will  be  so  much 
the  wealthier,  and  have  so  much  more  of  the  product  of 
his  own  labor  to  devote  to  his  own  comfort  and  that  of 
his  family.  The  Albanj’'  Penitentiary  is  well  known  as 
the  standard  example  of  all  that  is  good  about  a  penal 
institution.  While  no  prisoners  are  better  fed,  clothed,  and 
cared  for,  than  the  inmates  of  that  penitentiary,  yet  by  its 
judicious  management  and  by  the  system  of  disposing  of 
the  products  of  its  labor  which  is  there  pursued,  not  only 
is  it  self  sustaining,  but  it  pays  into  the  treasury  of  the 
county  of  Albany,  about  50  per  cent,  profit  annually  upon 
the  expense  of  its  maintenance,  thus  relieving  taxation  in 
that  county  to  just  so  great  an  extent.  It  has  been  sug¬ 
gested  by  Governor  Seymour  and  others,  that  it  might  be 
well  to  devote  the  profit  of  each  prisoner’s  labor  after  the 
expense  of  his  maintenance  is  met,  to  a  fund  to  be  kept 
for  his  own  use  when  he  leaves  the  prison.  This  sugges¬ 
tion,  not  elaborated,  is  presented  for  the  consideration  of 
the  Legislature. 

At  all  events,  a  law  should  be  passed  at  once,  allowing 
the  Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Correction,  in  their 
discretion,  either  to  sell  the  products  of  prison  labor  or  to 
contract  it,  in  such  manner  and  under  such  regulations  as 
the  Legislature  may  deem  best.  Such  a  bill  has  been  pre¬ 
pared  under  the  auspices,  as  we  understand,  of  the  Prison 
Association,  and  is  now  pending  before  the  Legislature.  It 
8 


114 


seems  proper  to  call  attention  to  an  amendment  to  the  bill 
as  now  introduced,  which  is  desirable,  and  that  is,  that  the 
Commissioners  should  be  allowed  to  take  the  money  which 
is  received  as  the  result  of  prison  labor  and  employ  it  in 
the  maintenance  of  the  prison.  Under  the  present  act  it 
must  go  into  the  general  fund,  and  cannot  serve  either  to 
sustain  the  prisoner  or  abate  taxation  in  the  present  year, 
but  must  go  into  next  year’s  budget,  if  at  all.  This  should 
not  be  ;  the  money  received  should  be  devoted  in  the  first 
instance  to  the  maintenance  of  the  institution  ;  if  any  bal¬ 
ance  remains  over,  it  should  then  be  paid  into  the  city 
treasury.  And  this  recommendation  with  regard  to  the 
disposal  of  prison  labor,  should  apply  not  onlj'^to  the  Peni- 
tentiar}-,  but  to  the  Work-house  and  all  the  other  convict 
institutions  under  the  custody  of  the  Commissioners.  If 
this  be  done,  and  if  the  institutions  be  economically  and 
properl}^  administered,  the  Committee  see  no  reason  to 
doubt  but  that  in  the  first  place  a  sufficient  number  of 
keepers  may  be  emploj'ed,  the  number  being  now  entirely 
inadequate ;  that  a  proper  compensation  may  be  paid  to 
high  officials,  such  as  the  Warden  of  the  Penitentiary  who 
now  receives  onlj"  $1,650  per  annum,  without  any  boar-d, 
and  that  the  institutions  may  become  absolutely  and  alto 
gether  self-sustaining,  and  their  continued  existence  im¬ 
pose  no  tax  upon  the  citizens  of  New  York. 

THE  WOKK-HOUSE. 

The  Work-house  is  a  large  building,  near  the  northern 
end  of  Blackwell’s  Island,  to  which  are  sent  persons  con¬ 
victed  of  such  petty  offences  as  drunkenness,  wife  aban¬ 
donment,  disordei’ly  conduct  and  the  like,  together  with 
a  certain  number  who  are  committed  as  destitute,  upon 
their  own  applications  to  the  courts. 


115 


There  were  in  the  Work-house  on  the  30th  of  September, 
1010  inmates,  and  during  the  winter  months,  the  number 
is  much  larger.  The  building  is  divided  into  two  great 
wings,  one  for  male  and  the  other  for  female  prisoners. 
It  seemed  to  the  Committee,  that  rather  too  much  inter¬ 
mingling  of  male  and  female  prisoners  occurred  in  the 
institution  for  good  discipline.  But  the  fact  is  that  the 
number  of  kee])ers  attached  to  the  place  is  ridiculously 
inadequate  to  the  custody  of  the  number  of  inmates  there, 
although  the  number  of  keepers  is  as  large  as  the  appro¬ 
priation  under  the  control  of  the  Commissioners  will  war¬ 
rant.  One  of  the  gi-eat  evils  of  the  system  of  commitment 
to  the  Work-house  has  been  adverted  to  in  that  portion  of 
the  report  which  refers  to  the  police  courts,  wherein  it  has 
been  recommended  that  for  repeated  offenses  of  drunken¬ 
ness  the  Judges  may  have  the  power  of  commitments  for 
longer  periods  ;  persons  who  are  sent  to  the  Work-house, 
should  be  made  to  work  as  a  first  requisite,  as  a  welfare 
to  the  institution,  and  while  the  Committee  are  well  satis¬ 
fied  that  very  great  improvement  in  this  respect  has  been 
effected  within  the  last  year,  there  still  remains  room  for 
further  improvement,  particularly  in  the  case  of  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  the  act  above  recommended,  allowing  the  disposal 
of  the  results  of  convict  labor.  A  year  or  two  ago,  it 
would  seem  that  the  Work-house  was  a  mere  loafing  place, 
wherein  nothing  whatever  was  done.  As  a  consequence, 
its  hospitable  walls  were  eagerly  sought  in  winter  by 
tramps  and  vagabonds  of  every  description.  The  partial 
•work  to  which  they  have  now  been  put,  has  had  a  happy 
effect  in  weeding  out  a  considerable  number  of  this  class, 
and  the  number  of  inmates  is  much  smaller  than  it  was 
two  years  ago. 

One  of  the  striking  features  of  the  Work-house,  in  the 


116 


evidence  before  the  Committee,  is,  that  488  escapes,  called, 
in  the  euphemistic  language  of  the  institution,  “  elope¬ 
ments,”  occurred  within  the  space  of  twelve  months.  And 
this  accounts  for  the  wearisome  reiteration  with  which 
the  Police  Justices  have  testified  before  the  Committee, 
that  they  have  repeatedly  sent  people  to  the  Work-house 
for  three  months,  and  liave  had  the  same  prisoners  brought 
before  them  within  the  space  of  a  fortnight.  The  author¬ 
ities  of  the  Work-house  do  not  seem  to  be  to  blame  in  this 
matter,  for  the  number  of  guards  is  absolutely  inadequate 
for  the  protection  of  the  institution,  especially  as  the  Com¬ 
missioners  have  directed  the  guards  not  to  carry  or  use 
firearms — a  philanthropic  theory,  as  to  the  correctness  of 
which  your  Committee  entertain  some  doubts.  The  cells 
in  the  main  wing  are  divided  into  three  tiers :  those  on 
the  lower  tier  containing  4  prisoners  each;  those  on  the 
second  tier,  12  prisoners  each  ;  those  on  the  third  tier,  26 
prisoners  each,  hlo  pretense  of  classification  with  regard 
to  ao-e  or  character  is  made.  It  does  not  seem,  in  view  of 
the  large  rooms  that  there  are  in  the  institution,  very 
difficult  to  make,  at  least,  a  partial  classification  upon  this 
basis.  Work-house  prisoners  perform  a  variety  of  labor 
for  the  Commissioners  in  otlier  institutions  under  their 
custody,  such  as  the  hospitals — an  arrangement  to  which 
there  seems  to  be  no  valid  objection.  A  singular  feature 
of  the  workhouse  will  be  found  in  the  testimony  of  Mr. 
McDonnell,  the  deputy  superintendent,  on  page  1116, 
where  he  states  that  a  number  of  children,  some  as  young 
as  nine  and  ten  years  of  age,  have  been,  from  time  to  time, 
committed  there.  Why  Police  Courts  should  have  sent 
little  children  to  the  Work-house,  when  it  was  entirely 
within  their  power  to  send  them  to  reformatory  institu- 
ions,  the  Committee  are  at  a  loss  to  imagine. 


117 


THK  SCHOOL-SHIP  MKRCURY. 

Is  a  ship  owned  by  the  city,  in  which  a  number  of  boys, 
committed  for  petty  offenses,  vagrancy,  truancy,  and  the 
like,  are  confined.  Your  Committee  visited  it  and  made 
a  very  thorough  inspection  of  it.  Upon  the  day  upon 
which  the  Committee  visited  it,  193  boys  were  living  in 
it.  It  has  been  customary,  in  the  past,  for  this  ship  to 
make,  annually,  five  or  six  short  cruises  of  ten  days  or  a 
fortnight  each,  and  one  long  cruise,  for  three  or  four  of 
the  wintei’  months.  Tlie  boys  were  trained  as  sailors, 
and,  it  appears  from  the  testimony  of  the  captain,  that  a 
large  number  of  boys  from  this  vessel  have  gone  as  sailors 
into  the  United  States  Navy,  and  also  into  the  merchant 
service.  The  reports  received  by  the  captain  of  the  be¬ 
havior  and  usefulness  of  the  boys  who  have  been  sent 
from  tbe  ship,  have,  in  general,  been  very  favorable,  and 
the  naval  officers,  in  particular,  have  expressed  emphatic 
approval.  The  cost  of  maintaining  the  vessel,  in  all  re¬ 
spects,  including  salaries,  repairs,  and  the  support  of  the 
boys,  was  about  $25,000  last  year.  Owing  to  the  reduced 
•  appropriations,  the  Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Cor¬ 
rection  have  been  compelled  to  put  the  ship  out  of  com¬ 
mission,  and  send  the  boys  on  shore. 

hart’s  island. 

At  Hart’s  Island  a  number  of  boys,  men  and  women, 
transferred  from  the  Work-house,  are  kept  under  the 
custody  of  the  Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Correc¬ 
tion.  This  seems  a  very  good  place  on  which  in  the  future 
to  build  new  penal  institutions,  and  it  is  a  matter  which 
one  looking  judiciously  to  the  welfare  of  the  city  in  years 
to  come  may  well  take  into  consideration. 


118 


HOUSE  OF  KEFTJGE, 

The  House  of  Refuge  belongs  to  a  corporation  known 
as  the  Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Delin¬ 
quents,  which  was  chartered  bytlie  State  in  the  year  1824-, 
chapter  126  of  the  Session  Laws  of  that  year.  To  its 
custody  may  be  committed  all  boys  convicted  of  crime  in 
the  First,  Second,  and  Third  Judicial  Districts  of  the 
State,  and  all  girls  convicted  of  crime  from  any  portion  of 
the  State. 

Upon  the  day  that  the  Committee  visited  it,  it  con¬ 
tained  about  800  inmates.  The  children  are  kindly  cared 
for,  are  taught  trades,  i-eceive  a  good  school  education  as 
well,  and  every  effort  appears  to  be  made  towards  a  re¬ 
formation  of  their  characters.  The  labor  of  the  inmates 
of  this  institution  is  contracted  for.  It  should  seem  that 
the  law-making  authorities  did  not  suppose  that  such  an 
operation  would  conflict  with  the  claims  of  honest  labor, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  although  the  laborers  are  young 
and  inexperienced,  the  institution  is  very  much  more 
self-supporting  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case.  The 
income  of  the  institution  in  the  year  1874,  was  derived  as- 
follows:  From  appropriations  by  the  Legislature, $60,500 
from  the  profits  of  labor,  $41,594.48  ;  from  the  Board  of 
Education,  $7,468.16,  and  from  theatre  licenses,  a  tax  im¬ 
posed  uj:on  theatrical  performances  in  the  city  of  New 
York  for  the  benefit  of  the  institution,  $7,000 ;  from  the 
sale  of  unused  articles,  $964.53— a  total  of  $117,527.62, 
supporting  the  whole  institution.  The  buildings  are 
spacious  and  comfortable,  and  are  located  upon  Randall’s 
Island,  which  lies  in  the  East  river,  nearly  opposite  the 
mouth  of  the  Harlem  rivei’.  The  institution  is  governed 
by  a  board  of  managers,  holding  office  for  the  terms  of 


119 


three  years,  and  elected  by  a  vote  of  the  members  of  the 
iiistihition,  which  is  very  nearly  a  nominal  body,  linger 
them,  the  executive  charge  is  intrusted  to  the  superintend¬ 
ent,  with  a  proper  corps  of  officers.  Thei-e  seems  to  be 
nothing  left  to  be  desired  about  the  institution.  It  is  in 
every  respect  an  honor  to  the  city  and  to  the  gentlemen 
who  have  it  in  charge. 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  PROTECTORY. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Protectory  is  located  in  Westches¬ 
ter  County,  near  the  village  of  West  Chester,  and  a  little 
distance  deyond  the  present  city  boundary.  It  consists  of 
two  enormous  buildings,  one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls, 
with  a  large  number  of  smaller  structures  surrounding. 
It  is  owned  by  a  corporation  and  receives  children  under 
substantially  the  same  circumstances  as  those  sent  to  the 
House  of  Refuge,  and  also  a  very  large  number  sent  for 
vagrancy,  truancy  and  similar  petty  offenses.  While  con-r 
ducted  under  the  management  of  the  Christian  Brothers, 
a  benevolent  society  attached  to  the  Roman  Catholic  charge 
and  while  especially  designed  to  receive  Roman  Catholic 
children,  there  seems  to  be  no  disposition  to  proselytize, 
when  those  of  other  faiths  are  committed  to  its  custody. 

On  the  day  when  the  Committee  visited  it,  it  contained 
about  2,000  inmates,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more 
thoroughly  benevolent,  useful  and  beautiful  institution. 
Children  are  taught  trades,  the  proceeds  of  their  labor 
being  sold ;  are  also  taught  the  ordinary  rudiments  of 
education,  and  are  undoubtedly  cared  for  with  a  kindness 
and  good  management  which  is  beyond  all  jn-aise.  It  is 
governed  by  a  board  of  managers,  and  under  them,  the 
executive  charge  of  the  male  department  is  confided  to  a 
Christian  Brother ;  that  of  the  female  department  to  a 


120 


Sister  of  Charity,  Its  income  is  derived  as  follows  :  $110 
per  annum  from  the  city  of  New  York  for  each  child 
committed  there,  or  a  proportionate  amount  for  the  time 
that  the  child  actually  remains  in  its  custody,  and  the  rest 
of  its  support  from  private  benevolence  or  from  the  pro¬ 
ceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  manufactures  made  there.  This 
institution  also  meets  with  the  unqualified  approval  and 
commendation  of  the  Committee. 

THE  NEW  YORK  .JUVENILE  ASYLUM. 

Contains  two  buildings,  one  in  Thirteenth  street,  a  house 
of  reception,  and  one  at  Fort  Washington,  the  Home.  It 
receives  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  committed 
by  magistrates  for  thcA^arious  petty  offenses,  and  the  num¬ 
ber  of  inmates  in  the  two  buildings  was,  on  the  first  of 
January,  1875,  644.  Ti-ades  are  taught  to  the  children ; 
they  are  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of  education,  and 
every  care  and  kindness  seems  to  be  extended  to  them.  A 
very  important  part  of  the  working  of  this  institution  is 
the  process  pursued  by  it  of  sending  large  numbers  of  its 
children  to  Illinois,  where  it  has  an  agejicy,  and  whence 
they  are  indentured  out,  principally  to  farmers.  This 
portion  of  the  working  of  the  institution  is  looked  upon 
as  a  peculiarly  desirable  one  by  its  managers. 

From  all  three  of  the  institutions  above  alluded  to 
.children  are  indentured  to  masters  under  proper  bonds  of 
apprenticeship, and  the  officers  of  the  institutions  still  con¬ 
tinue  to  exercise  some  supervision  over  the  children  after 
they  are  apprenticed. 

The  Committee  cannot  dismiss  this  branch  of  the  subject 
without  expressing  the  deep  gratification  that  they  have 
experienced  in  the  visits  that  they  have  paid  to  the  House 
of  Hefuge,  the  Catholic  Protectory,  and  to.  the  Juvenile 


121 


Asylum.  They  are,  in  all  respects,  model  institutions. 
Children  are  not  treated  in  them  as  convicts,  but  as  human 
beings,  susceptible  of  reformation  and  amenable  to  kind 
treatment,  and  the  amount  of  good  that  is  ensuing  to  the 
city  of  New  Tork  from  the  sending  of  children  to  those 
institutions  instead  of,  as  formerly,  confining  them  in 
prisons,  is  absolutely  incalculable.  The  city  owes,  and 
the  Committee  should  express,  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to 
those  benevolent  men,  who,  without  any  earthly  reward, 
devote  their  time,  their  labor  and  their  means,  to  the  sup¬ 
port  of  these  noble  institutions. 

The  Committee  would  recommend  to  the  Legislature  the 
passage  of  a  lawmaking  it  mandatory  upon  courts  to  com¬ 
mit  children  under  16  to  one  or  the  other  of  those 
institutions,  and  forbidding  them  to  send  any  such  imma¬ 
ture  persons  to  the  penitentiaries  and  to  the  workhouse 
as  seems  to  be  too  often  now  the  case. 

GENERAL  SUGGESTIONS. 

The  testimony  of  Dr.  Elisha  Harris,  for  many  years 
Registrar  of  Vital  Statistics  (j).  2816,  et  seij.),  and  especially 
the  memoranda  submitted  by  him  in  writing  to  the  Com¬ 
mittee  (p.  2832,  et  seq.),  point  out  very  clearly  what  is  no 
doubt  one  of  the  most  fertile  causes  of  crime,  viz.  :  the 
over  crowding  of  people  in  tenement  houses.  Those  who 
live  in  comfort  in  their  own  homes  can  with  difficulty 
realize  the  dreadful  condition  of  the  poor  who  reside  in 
tenement  houses,  three,  four,  and  five  to  a  small  and  filthy 
room.  No  home  comfort  invites  the  growing  youth  to  re¬ 
main  with  the  family,  and  without  there  is  furnished  to 
him  no  harmless  place  of  amusement  and  recreation  to 
which  he  can  resort.  The  nearest  liquor  store  is  the  only 
spot  he  knows.of  where  he  can  meet  with  his  follows  and 


122 


have  any  social  intercourse.  Naturally,  therefore,  he  falls 
into  evil  coinpau}"  and  evil  habits,  and  grows  up  a  promis¬ 
ing  recruit  for  the  great  army  of  crime. 

Two  remedies  seem  to  suggest  themselves  to  our  con¬ 
sideration,  the  most  patent  being  a  law  to  prevent  the 
over-crowding  of  tenement  houses.  Such  a  law  has 
been  enforced  in  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  and  other  cities 
in  Great  Britain,  and  if  the  statistics  of  Glasgow’s 
crime,  given  on  page  2838,  are  to  be  taken  as  a 
criterion,  the  effect  in  reducing  crime  is  fairly  astonish¬ 
ing.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  added  that  the 
expected  completion  of  rapid  transit  roads  will  furnish 
our  people  with  a  swift  and  cheap  means  to  reach  homes 
more  fitted  for  the  future  usefulness  of  their  inmates,  which 
may  yet  be  procured  at  prices  within  the  incomes  of  all 
laboring  men.  But  a  law  preventing  the  over-crowding 
of  tenement  houses  should  in  any  event  be  passed  and 
rigidly  enforced.  Whatever  temporary  inconvenience 
might  be  caused,  the  final  effect  would  be  greatly  to  benefit 
the  community  at  large,  and  the  honest,  laboring  poor  in 
particular. 

In  addition  to  this,  your  Committee  would  suggest  to  the 
Legislature  the  propriet}'^  of  allowing  the  city  authorities 
to  furnish  rooms  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  to  which 
all  should  be  welcome,  where  public  journals  should  be 
kept  and  such  books  as  might  be  donated,  and  even  in¬ 
nocent  means  of  amusement,  such  as  chess,  cards,  domi¬ 
noes,  etc.,  might  be  provided  ;  in  short,  a  sort  of  free  club 
for  the  laboring  classes.  The  expense  of  such  places 
would  be  trifling  compared  to  the  inestimable  good  that 
would  flow  from  their  frequent  use. 


123 


LUDLOW  STREET  JAIL. 

In  addition  to  the  duties  imposed  upon  the  Committee 
b}’’  the  resolution  of  May  19,  1875,  tliey  were  furtjier  in¬ 
structed  by  the  resolution  adopted  May  21,  1875,  to 
investigate  the  management  of  Ludlow  street  jail,  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  the  general  subject  of  arrest  upon 
civil  process  in  that  city. 

The  very  onerous  nature  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  the 
Committee  under  the  first  resolution,  has  rendered  it  im¬ 
possible  for  them  to  bestow  that  attention  upon  this  subject 
which  it  deserves.  But  they  have  inspected  the  jail 
thoroughly,  have  twice  held  sessions  there,  examining  the 
officers  and  a  number  of  the  inmates,  and  have  taken  some 
other  testimony  from  outside,  bearing  upon  the  manage 
ment  and  upf)n  the  subject  of  aiTest  upon  civil  process. 

The  number  of  prisoners  confined  in  Ludlow  street  jail, 
on  civil  process,  was  not  so  large  as  we  expected,  being  on 
the  day  that  we  visited  it  only  33.  In  addition  to  these 
prisoners,  there  were  seven  others  confined  for  non-payment 
of  National  Guard  dues  and  fines.  These  constituted  all 
the  prisoners  held  on  civil  process  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
a  great  majority  of  them  having  been  arrested  by  the 
sheriff,  a  few  by  the  marshals. 

While  we  did  not  enter  as  extensivel}^  as  the  resolution 
seemed  to  contemplate  into  a  detailed  examination  of 
each  prisoner,  it  appeared  probable  to  us,  that  a -majority 
of  the  inmates  were  arrested  upon  such  charges  as  libel, 
slander,  breach  of  promise  of  marriage,  assault  and  bat¬ 
tery,  and  other  charges,  for  the  punishment  of  which, 
ample  remedy  seems  to  be  provided  in  the  crimnal  law 
and  in  the  right  of  action,  on  the  civil  side  of  the  court^ 
without  the  additional  power  of  arrest.  Only  a  minority, 


124 


apparent]}',  were  held  for  causes  growing  out  of  breach  of 
trust  or  fraudulent  representations. 

The  building  known  as  Ludlow  street  jail,  is  a  large 
structure,  belonging  to  the  county  of  hTew  York,  erected 
about  thirteen  years  since.  While  the  building  is  erected 
and  owned  by  the  county  of  New  York,  it  is  under  the 
exclusive  management  of  the  sheriff,  who  is  responsible 
for  the  safe  keeping  of  all  persons  arrested  upon  civil  pro¬ 
cess,  whether  they  be  confined  in  Ludlow  street  jail,  or 
give  bail,  or  are  at  liberty  by  the  permission  or  connivance 
of  the  sheriff.  From  this  condition  of  things,  the  sheriff 
being  absolutely  responsible  for  the  prisoners,  and  the  re¬ 
cipient  of  whatever  emoluments  are  derived  from  the  jail, 
has  arisen  a  dangerous  and  unpleasant  complication  be¬ 
tween  the  sheriff  and  the  financial  officers  of  the  county 
as  to  who  shall  be  held  responsible  for  the  expenses  of 
the  jail,  and  what  charges,  if  any.  should  fall  upon  the 
county.  Certainly  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  jail  should 
bo  defrayed  by  the  county,  for  scarcely  any  legitimate 
emoluments  can  be  derived  by  the  sheriff  from  the  jail 
itself,  and  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  he  will  pay  its  ex¬ 
penses  out  of  his  own  pocket.  It  has  always  been  the 
practice  that  the  county  should  pay  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  prisoners,  and  up  to  within  two  or  three  years,  this 
practice  was  unbroken. 

Differences  of  opinion,  however,  having  arisen,  the  Leg¬ 
islature  last  year  passed  an  act  (Chap.  — ,  Laws  of  1875) 
which  made  the  maintenance  of  prisioners  who  were  des. 
titute  a  county  charge,  and  required  that  the  Board  of 
Supervisors  should  fix  a  rate  per  diem,  which  should  be 
paid  by  the  county,  for  the  support  of  such  prisoners.  In 
pursuance  of  this,  the  Board  of  Supervisors  fixed  the  rate 
at  seventy-five  cents  a  day  for  all  such  prisioners  as  would 


125 


swear  that  they  were  unable  to  pay  for  tlieir  own  support 
Bills  have  accordingly  been  made  out  by  the  warden  of 
the  jail  on  this  basis,  but  as  yet  they  have  not  been  paid 
nor  has  any  reason  been  given  for  their  non-payment 
Other  disputes  as  to  who  shall  defray  the  cost  of  maintain¬ 
ing  the  prisioners  have  arisen.  Tlie  comptroller  has  re¬ 
fused  to  pay  tlie  doctor’s  bill.  Between  the  comptroller 
and  the  sheriff,  no  coal  has  been  provided  for  the  freezing 
prisoners  this  winter.  This  is  a  state  of  things  which,  for 
the  honor  and  the  credit  of  the  city,  ought  to  cease  at 
once.  If  there  be  any  defect  or  doubt  in  the  law,  it  should 
be  amended,  so  as  to  provide  that  the  county  of  New  York 
shall  pay  for  the  poor  debtors  who  are  thrust  by  it  into 
jail,  and  not  leave  them  like  the  prisoners  on  the  poor 
side  of  the  old  Fleet  and  Marshalsea  prisons  in  London, 
to  starve,  to  freeze,  and  to  beg  for  bread. 

The  jail  is  a  large,  well  ventilated,  and,  apparently, 
well  constructed  building,  containing,  in  its  main  hall, 
four  tiers  of  cells — in  all  61  cells — which  are  of  fair  size, 
considering  that  each  cell  is  expected  to  accommodate 
two  prisoners.  The  general  equipment  of  the  jail,  as  to 
beds,  bedding,  water-closets,  etc.,  is  probably  as  good  as 
could  be  expected.  The  washing  conveniences  were  ex¬ 
ceedingly  deficient,  being  only  one  tank,  eight  feet  long 
and  two  feet  wide,  with  four  water  taps  in  it,  to  accom¬ 
modate  68  prisoners  (the  number  in  confinement  the  day 
the  Committee  first  visited  the  jail).  There  is  a  bath-room 
attached  to  the  place,  but  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  any¬ 
body  ever  used  it.  Meals  are  supplied  to  the  prisoners, 
except  the  boarders,  in  their  rooms  ;  the  fare,  consisting 
of  bread  and  coffee  for  breakfast,  meat  (generally  salt 
beef),  bread  and  potatoes  for  dinner,  with  soup  twice  a 
week,  and  bread  and  tea  for  supper.  The  quantity  and 


12(1 


the  quality  of  the  food  seemed  to  be  good,  and  no  com¬ 
plaint  was  made  on  that  subject. 

The  prison  is  under  the  management  of  a  warden,  a 
deputy-warden,  and  eight  keepers,  in  addition  to  a  sort  of 
assistant- warden,  recently  appointed  by  the  sheriff. 

Tlie  routine  of  life  observed  in  the  jail  is  somewhat  as 
follows :  The  prisoners  have  breakfast  at  eight  o’clock  in 
the  morning,  dinner  at  twelve,  supper  at  five.  At  dark, 
they  are  supposed  to  be  locked  in  their  cells  until  the  next 
morning.  Exceptions,  however,  to  this  latter  rule  are 
numerous.  First,  is  the  class  known  as  “  utility  men ;  ” 
a  number  of  prisoners  who  are  allowed,  as  a  privilege,  (!) 
to  do  all  the  dirtj  work  about  the  jail,  the  cleaning  of 
bed-rooms,  washing  out  the  privies,  etc.  The  inducement 
held  out  to  prisoners  to  thus  degrade  tliemselves  is,  that 
they  are  allowed  to  have  their  cell  doors  unlocked  until 
half  past  ten  at  night.  Then,  there  is  tlie  class  of  boarders, 
of  whom  there  were  only  five  in  the  jail  the  day  we  visited 
it.  These  people  pay  $16  a  week  each,  for  the  privilege 
of  eating  their  meals  down  stairs  in  the  keepers’  dining¬ 
room  ;  and,  of  cour.se,  receive  infinitely  better  fare.  There 
seems  no  valid  objection  to  persons  who  are  able  to  do  so, 
being  allowed  to  pay  board.  But,  in  the  first  place,  the 
price  charged  is  enormously  extortionate;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  these  boarders  are  allowed  the  privilege  of 
having  their  cells  unlocked  until  half  past  ten,  and  are 
given  cells  upon  the  first  tier,  which  is  simply  affording 
them  advantages  over  other  inmates  of  the  jail,  for  money. 
In  addition  to  these  classes,  it  is  very  manifest  that  the 
keepers  receive  bribes  from  certain  persons,  for  allowing 
them  to  have  their  cell  doors  open  until  later.  See  testi¬ 
mony  of  Stratton,  page  1541,  Allyea,  page  1558,  and  Leslie, 
page  1560.  In  fact,  the  keepers  seem  to  practice  all  sorts 


127 


of  petty  extortions  upon  the  prisoners,  and  the  general 
eharacter  of  the  keepers  is  pronounced  by  the  deputy- 
warden,  Mr.  Gardner,  an  old  and  experienced  officer,  not 
good.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  rules  of  discipline  vvdiat- 
ever  exist  for  the  govern tnent  of  the  keepers.  Mr.  Gard¬ 
ner  testifies  at  page  1510,  that  12  or  13-  years  ago,  there  were 
rules,  which  ceased  to  exist  when  Mr.  Tracy  became  Warden, 
eight  years  ago.  Since  that  time,  he  saj's  there  have  been  no 
rules  in  existence.  Mr.  Gardner’s  opinion  is  expressedly 
given  on  page  1510  ;  that  without  some  rule  governing 
the  attaches  of  the  place,  the  warden  ought  not  to  be  held 
personally  responsible.  The  absence  of  rules  is  abund¬ 
antly  demonstrated  by  the  absence  of  discipline,  and, 
while  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the  general  testimony  is  that  a 
great  improvement  has  occurred  in  the  jail  within  the  last 
two  years,  still  there  is  sickening  testimony  of  abuse, 
brutality,  and  extortion  on  the  part  of  keepers.  Leslie 
testifies  that  he  paid  keeper  McCarty  $10  for  his  room 
(page  1561).  That  there  is  an  understanding  that  he  shall 
further  pay  him  for  the  privilege  of  having  his  door  open. 
Stratton  testifies  that  he  paid  $18  for  a  cell,  to  one  Sam. 
Oppenheimer,  a  prisoner  who  has  been  there  nearly  six 
years,  who  runs  the  bar — of  which  presently — and  who 
seems  to  be  general  go-between  of  the  officers  and  prison¬ 
ers.  The  White  case,  the  case  of  a  prisoner  who  had  an 
encounter  with  a  keeper,  is  variously  testified  to,  but  it  is 
(juite  manifest  from  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Gardner  (page 
1503),  of  Mr.  Stratton  (page  1536),  and  even  from  the  ad¬ 
mission  of  Ilochmuth  that  the  keeper  struck  White  when 
he  was  down,  and  that  the  keeper  was  grossly  to  blame. 
In  addition  to  that,  it  is  testified  that  brutal  and  obscene 
language  is  frequently  used  by  keepers  to  prisoners.  The 
testimony  of  Stratton  (page  1537),  and  Norton  (page 


128 


1552),  It  further  appears  on  the  testimony  of  all  the 
witnesses,  including  the  keepers,  that  in  flagrant  defiance  of 
the  law  a  regular  bar  is  maintained  in  the  ])rison,  the 
emoluments  of  which  go  to  the  superiors  (Gardner's  testi¬ 
mony,  page  1507).  Prisoners  frequently  get  intoxicated 
there,  although  the  witnesses  think  that  the  keepers  take 
some  pains  not  to  let  them  get  too  drunk  (see  page  1542). 
Keepers  also  are  seen  drunk  (page  1558).  But  the  most  strik¬ 
ing  example  of  the  results  flowing  from  the  maintenance  of 
the  bar  and  from  the  conduct  of  the  keepers,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Zimmerman  case,  which  is  testified  to  at  length  hy 
Coroner  Eickhoff  at  page  2207,  and  by  the  witnesses 
Westbrook  (2229),  and  Alton  (2238).  It  appeared  that 
Zimmerman  got  drunk  at  the  bar,  was  hustled  into  his 
cell  and  locked  up,  and  there  had  an  attack  of  delirium 
tremens.  The  prisoner  who  was  locked  in  with  him, 
clamored  for  aid,  and  was  taken  out.  Zimmerman  com¬ 
menced  to  shout  and  beat  at  the  doors,  and  to  smash  the 
furniture.  No  one  ever  went  near  him  to  restrain  him,  or 
to  pay  any  attention  to  him,  although  his  shrieks  could 
have  been  heard  a  block  off.  Alton,  the  prisoner  in  the 
adjoining  cell,  soon  heard  him  groaning  as  though 
strangling,  and  called  to  the  keepers  to  come  to  his  as¬ 
sistance,  but  no  one  came.  In  the  morning,  Zimmerman 
was  found  dead,  with  his  head  thrust  through  the  iron 
wires  of  his  bedstead,  and  with  these  wires  strangling 
him  around  the  neck.  These  witnesses  did  not  testify 
before  the  coroner’s  jury,  apparently  from  fear  of  the 
keepers.  At  the  time  they  testified  before  the  Committee, 
they  were  out  of  the  jail. 

It  is  worthy  of  note,  that  the  affidavits  of  poverty  re¬ 
quired  to  be  taken,  in  order  to  enable  a  claim  to  be  made 
against  the  county  for  the  support  of  the  prisoners,  were 


129 


found  on  tile  by  the  Committee,  as  made  in  the  cases  of 
those  prisoners  who  paid  board,  although  the  deputy- 
warden  asserts  that  these  affidavits  were  not  used  in  their 
cases.  It  is  further  to  be  observed,  that  the  testimony  of 
Norton  (page  1552,  and  Leslie,  1560),  shows  that  when 
they  first  entered  the  jail,  they  paid  board,  and  yet,  affi¬ 
davits  made  by  them  are  on  file,  of  which  they  charge 
that  the  dates  are  falsified. 

An  extraordinary  feature  of  the  jail  is,  that  there  are 
confined  in  it  28  prisoners  arrested  as  criminals  in  the 
United  States  courts,  and  charged  with  such  crimes  as 
perjury,  robbery,  smuggling,  counterfeiting,  forgery,  and 
piracy  (see  page  1500),  and  also  certain  other  United 
States  prisoners  who  have  been  tried,  convicted,  and  are, 
in  fact,  working  out  their  sentences,  without  performing 
any  labor,  in  our  jail  for  poor  debtors  (see  page  1756). 
No  separation  is  made  between  these  criminals,  even 
though  they  be  convicts,  and  the  debtoi’S  and  National 
Guard  prisoners.  All  day  long  they  are  free  to  mingle  in 
each  other’s  company  as  much  as  the}'  please.  Nor  does 
it  even  appear  that  the  distribution  into  cells  recognizes 
any  distinction  between  the  two  classes  of  prisoners.  In 
other  branches  of  their  work,  the  Committee  have 
complained  of  a  lack  of  classification  between  young 
and  old  criminals,  but  nothing  so  scandalous  as  this 
has  elsewhere  been  seen.  Nothing  so  utterly  demoral¬ 
izing,  for  instance,  as  to  put  a  boy  like  Stark, 
fifteen  years  old  (see  page  1515),  to  herd  with  old 
pirates  and  forgers.  Yet,  so  long  as  the  county  does  not 
expect  to  support  the  prison,  and  so  long  as  it  throws  its 
charge  upon  the  sheriff,  and  requires  him  to  make  both 
ends  meet  in  his  financial  management,  or,  if  it  is  possible, 
to  make  something  out  of  it  as  a  money-getting  affair,  so 


9 


130 


long  will  such  abuses  continue.  It  is  needless  to  point  out 
that  a  law  should  be  instantly  passed,  forbidding  the  in¬ 
carceration  of  these  United  States  criminals  in  our  jail  for 
civil  prisoners.  They  might  be  provided  for  in  the  new 
Jefferson  Market  prison,  or  in  any  other  criminal  jail. 

While  making  these  strictures  upon  the  management  of 
the  jail,  it  is  but  fair  to  say  that  the  Committee  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  a  great  improvement  has  taken  place 
in  the  welfare  of  its  inmates,  and  in  the  general  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  institution  in  the  last  two  years.  Yery  much, 
however,  remains  to  be  done. 

Since  the  Committee  finished  taking  all  its  testimon}'^ 
concerning  Ludlow  Street  jail,  it  has  become  suddenly 
notorious  all  over  the  civilized  world,  by  the  escape  of 
William  M.  Tweed  from  the  custody  of  the  sheriff,  while 
out  driving  in  company  with  the  warden  of  the  jail  and 
one  of  the  keepers.  The  occurrence  is  in  every  respect  a 
scandalous  one,  but  the  Committee  did  not  deem  that  they 
could  do  any  good,  or  throw  any  light  upon  the  mystery, 
by  examining  into  it,  especially  as  the  District  Attorney 
immediately  brought  the  matter  before  the  Grrand  Jury, 
and  they  examined  all  the  witnesses  who  could  have  had 
any  information  to  report. 

Your  Committee  would  recommend  that  the  cost  of  sus¬ 
taining  the  prisoners  be  taken  away  from  the  sheriff,  as 
hardly  any  legitimate  income  can  accrue  to  him  from  the 
prison,  especially  if  the  United  States  prisoners  no  longer 
remain  there  :  That  the  warden  have,  as  is  the  case  with 
the  warden  of  the  Tombs,  absolute  and  uncontrolled  au¬ 
thority  over  its  management,  subject  only  to  the  authority 
of  his  superior — an  arrangement  which  it  seems  very 
doubtful  that  the  prison  has  enjoyed  for  the  last  year  : 
That  the  county  maintain  the  prison,  making  a  proper 


131 


appi’opriation  for  all  its  expenses,  the  pay  of  its  keepers, 
the  fuel,  food,  medical  attendance,  and  all  the  other  wants 
of  the  prisoners.  In  this  way,  the  prison  wdll  cease  to  be 
looked  upon  as  a  money-getting  institution,  and  will  be 
worthy  of  the  great  city  which  it  now  disgraces. 

But  your  Committee  would  further  recommend  an  entire 
revision  of  the  laws  concerning  arrests  on  civil  ]n’ocess ;  if, 
indeed,  the  Legislature  deem  it  wise  to  continue  imprison¬ 
ment  for  debt  any  longer— a  matter  as  to  the  advisability 
of  which  the  Committee  entertain  grave  doubts.  They  re¬ 
commend  that  the  Code  of  Pj-ocedure  be  so  amended  that 
no  order  of  arrest  shall  be  granted  in  cases  of  injury  to 
person  or  cliaracter,  for  breach  of  promise  of  marriage,  or 
for  a  line  or  penalty,  or  because  the  defendant  is  claimed 
to  be  about  to  leave  the  State  ;  thus  restricting  the  power 
of  arrest  in  civil  process  substantially  to  cases  of  fraud, 
embezzlement  and  breach  of  trust.  We  see  no  reason  for 
maintaining  the  pow'er  of  arrest  in  such  cases  as  libel, 
assault  and  battery,  slander,  etc.  In  libel  cases,  if  civil 
remedy  is  souglit,  an  action  for  damages  lies.  If  the 
punishment  of  the  offender  is  sought,  a  criminal  action 
may  be  brought  and  the  one  remedy  does  not  shut  out  the 
other.  So,  also,  of  assault  and  battery  cases.  The  practical 
working  of  the  law  as  it  now  stands,  is  that  pettifogging 
lawyers  are  perpetually  striving  to  embroil  their  neighbors 
witli  each  other,  and  perpetually  persecuting  defendants 
by  taking  out  orders  of  arrest  in  such  cases,  and,  indeed, 
husbands  are  frequently  arrested  in  this  city  for  alleged 
slanders  committed  by  their  wives.  Two  women  in  a 
tenement  house,  get  into  an  altercation,  and  call  each 
other  hard  names  and  the  pettifogger  gets  hold  of  one  of 
them,  and  the  first  thing  the  husband  of  the  other  knows, 
is  that  he  is  arrested  in  a  slander  suit.  It  may  happen  in 


132 


a  few  cases  here  and  there,  that  some  good  continues  to 
flow  from  the  existence  of  this  law,  but  in  the  great 
majorit}^  of  cases,  it  is  merel}'  an  abuse  and  a  nuisance, 
and  the  Committee  unhesitatingly  recommend  its  entire 
repeal. 

They  further  most  earnestly  recommend  a  more  speedy 
trial  of  the  issue,  as  to  whether  or  not  a  ground  for  arrest 
lies.  A  man  is  now  arrested  upon  ex  parte  affidavits,  and 
if  he  cannot  give  the  bail  recpiired,  his  only  alternative 
is  to  answer  by  other  ex  parte  affidavits  wliich  are  again 
liable  to  be  rebutted  ;  and  unless  he  can  get  discharged 
upon  such  an  application,  he  must  lie  in  jail  until  his 
case  may  be  tried.  Now,  where  a  man’s  liberty  is  con¬ 
cerned,  the  technicalities  of  hearing  upon  affidavits  ought 
not  to  continue.  Provision  should  be  made  by  law,  that 
within  not  to  exceed  fourteen  days,  from  the  time  of  his 
arrest,  a  prisoner  upon  his  demand  may  be  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  witnesses  against  him  before  tlie  court, 
may  have  the  right  to  cross-examine  them  there,  and  may 
produce  his  witnesses,  and  himself  to  give  oral  testimony 
before  the  court,  and  then  the  court  shall  pass  upon  the 
question  of  whether  or  not  the  order  of  arrest  shall  con¬ 
tinue.  By  passing  the  two  laws  here  suggested — the  one 
repealing  the  power  of  arrest  for  the  generally  frivolous 
or  malicious  actions  mentioned,  the  other  giving  to  the 
person  arrested  a  power  of  speedy  audience  before  the 
court — the  Committee  believe  that  the  number  of  persons 
hereafter  arrested  and  conflned  in  Ludlow  street  jail 
would  bear  but  a  small  proportion  to  those  who  have 
heretofore  so  suffered. 

One  other  question  is  worthy,  at  least,  of  consideration 
by  the  Legislature.  Persons  who  have  not  paid  their 
dues  in  the  National  Guard,  are  liable  to  arrest  and  con- 


133 


finement  for  twenty  days,  in  Ludlow  street  jail.  Seven 
such  persons  were  in  the  jail  on  the  first  occasion  when 
the  Committee  visited  it.  The  two  who  were  examined 
were  evidently  prevented  from  paying  their  dues  only  by 
abject  poverty.  One  of  them,  John  Brandt  (see  page 
1562),  was  a  poor  Gei’inan,  who  could  not  speak  English, 
who  claims,  whether  truly  or  not,  that  he  was  inveigled 
into  the  regiment  (which  has  since  been  disbanded),  upon 
the  pretence  that  it  was  a  sort  of  benevolent  association, 
and  would  care  fcr  him  and  his  family  if  he  were 
sick  or  were  to  die, ;  that  he  was  only  getting  $9  a  week, 
had  a  blind  wife  and  three  children ;  that  he  had  been 
absolutely  unable  to  pay  his  dues,  and  that  he  would  pro¬ 
bably  lose  his  place  by  the  fact  that  he  was  confined  in 
the  jail.  The  question  of  the  National  Guard  and  of  its 
means  of  enforcing  its  dues,  is  undoubtedly  a  delicate  one 
to  deal  with,  but  assuredly  such  things  as  ai-e  related  in 
this  testimony  are  abuses  that  ought  not  to  be  tolerated. 
If  a  man  becomes  so  destitute  that  he  has  not  the  money 
to  pay  his  dues  in  the  National  Guard,  it  seems  to  the 
Committee  that  he  had  better  be  expelled  from  his  regi¬ 
ment  instead  of  being  locked  up  in  jail,  losing  his  means 
of  subsistence  and  becoming  a  burden  upon  the  commun¬ 
ity.  If  it  is  desirable  to  continue  the  existence  of  the  law, 
some  sumniany  means  should  be  be  devised  by  which  a 
prisoner,  on  showing  absolute  poverty,  should  not  be  re¬ 
tained  in  jail. 


184 


CONCLUSION. 


lu  addition  to  Mr.  John  D.  Townsend,  the  Counsel  of 
the  Committee,  Mr.  Theodore  Anb,  was  subsequently 
appointed  Associate  Counsel.  Upon  the  resignation  of 
this  latter  gentleman,  Mr.  John  W.  Weed  was  appointed 
in  his  place.  To  all  of  those  gentlemen,  the  Committee 
desire  to  express  their  hearty  thanks  for  the  great  ability, 
patient  industry,  and  high  integrity  they  displayed  in 
assisting  us  in  the  performance  of  our  duties.  It  would 
have  been  very  difficult  to  find  anywhere  gentlemen  more 
fitted  for  the  efficient  discharge  of  the  severe  labors  im¬ 
posed  upon  them. 

With  these  closing  remarks,  the  Committee  submit 
tlieir  report  to  the  Legislature,  trusting  that  their  labors 
for  many  months,  and  their  earnest  exertions  for  the  gen¬ 
eral  weal,  may  tend,  through  the  wisdom  of  the  Legisla¬ 
ture’s  deliberations,  to  produce  such  results  that  crime 
may  be  largely  diminished  in  the  City  of  New  York. 


Very  respectfully  submitted. 


Thos.  Cooper  Campbell, 
Leo  C.  Dessar, 

John  T.  McGowan, 
Jacob  Hess, 


^  Committee. 

J 


The  undersigned  desires  to  add,  that  while  heartily 
concurring  in  nearly  all  the  Report  of  the  Committee, 
there  are  two  or  three  statements  of  fact  in  that  portion 
of  the  report  which  relates  to  the  District  Attorney’s 
office  and  excise  matters  to  which  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
understood  as  assenting. 


Jacob  Hess. 


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